Tachibana Mei Ja Nai
by kotsukotsu
Summary: Tachibana Mei is actually Mari Maryuyama, a half-Japanese, half-American model who is on the rise to worldwide fame. But when her father dies, Mari quits her job and moves to Japan to finish up her high school experience at her dad's alma mater. At Toumei High, Mari learns to love again, but will that all be destroyed by the arrival of Megu-tan, an old colleague?
1. Chapter 1

**Hi everyone! This is my second fic. I'm actually in the middle of writing my first one (a Killugon HunterxHunter story), but I fell in love with Sukitte ii na yo after reading the manga and watching the anime and felt the urge to write something in tribute of it. I was planning on writing a one-shot but got carried away in the process. I think there might be enough for one or two more chapters, so please read/review/favorite if you want to see more! Thank you!**

* * *

"Ne, Tachibana, I bet you've never had a boyfriend before."

"Ayami! I can't believe you said that to her face!"

"What? It's not like she's said more than ten words here since she transferred. And look at her!"

After two months of hearing the same thing, Tachibana Mei barely flinched at the insult, opting instead to keep walking.

Except her name was not Tachibana Mei—it was Mari Maruyama or, as her fans affectionately called her, Marumi. Up until last year, Mari was one of the most sought-after young models in America, featured in all of the top fashion magazines, runway shows, and even a few television features. But everything changed when her father died. Her mother tried to mask the seriousness of her father's illness leading up to his death because they both wanted Mari to take opportunities to advance her career that likely wouldn't come a second time. And Mari took those opportunities and succeeded, but only at the cost of not realizing that her father's cancer was serious before it was too late.

After the funeral, Mari cancelled all of her upcoming shows and shoots and locked herself in her room, only opening the door to eat a little bit of the food her mother would try to get her to eat and then pushing the leftovers outside. She would flip through old magazines of herself, looking so young and happy, and she hated herself for having become so obsessed with makeup, hair products, and clothing to the point that she couldn't even see her own father withering away before her eyes. Her mother, naturally, was very concerned for Mari's health, and so finally after three weeks had passed she waited for Mari to open the door to push her half-eaten food outside and jammed her foot in the door.

"Mari," her mother said, half stern and half concerned. "I'm worried about you honey. You aren't eating or sleeping well, and you haven't spoken to anyone in weeks. I understand if you aren't ready to work again, but you do need to leave your room and start living again. Your father wouldn't have wanted this for you, and you know it, too."

Mari was quiet on the other side of the door.

Her mother sighed. "I have an idea. How about you go to Japan and finish up your high school experience? Your father was always nagging you about the importance of education, and that way you can also return to where your father grew up."

Mari's mother had met Mari's father when he studied abroad in America at her university, so Mari was half-Japanese, half-American.

"I think your father would have liked that."

Mari cleared her throat—she hadn't spoken at all for the past three weeks.

"Ok," she said softly, surprising even her mother.

And that was that. A few days later, Mari was packed and ready to go.

Her mother hovered over Mari's frail body at the airport landing. Despite having been missing for the past three weeks, Mari's influence was still great enough to warrant a private jet in her name. It was a breeze getting Mari into any high school of her choice, but Mari's mother figured that Mari would want to go to her father's alma mater, Toumei High School so she worked out a contract with the president that Mari would attend that high school as long as the high school kept her identity a secret from the media. She looked sadly at her daughter's figure, hair blustered and without a trace of makeup on her gaunt face. No one would recognize her, at this rate anyway.

"You're sure I can't convince you to let me go with you?" she tried one last time with Mari.

Mari shook her head. "Maybe you can come visit after the first semester; but, for now, I just need some time to myself. I promise I'll be okay, mom."

Her mom took Mari's hand, smiling worriedly. "I know, honey. And you know your grandma on your father's side still lives in the area and will be there at the airport to meet you and drive you in town."

Mari nodded. Suddenly, she moved forward, hugging her mother as tightly as she could, which wasn't that strong at all.

"Thank you, mom," Mari said quietly, a few tears rolling down her cheek. She brushed away the tears before her mom could see them, but she still heard Mari's voice break.

Her mother smiled in earnest now.

"I can't wait to see you in the future, honey," she said, patting Mari's head. "As your father always said, ganbatte!" (Good luck!)

Her smiled faded as the jet rose, taking her daughter away.

"Ganbatte…." she said to herself.

Tears started to spring to Mari's eyes as she remembered that sad farewell with her mom. But again, she furiously wiped them away. She was looking down when someone large bumped into her, knocking the air straight out of her and flinging her to the ground. She winced, feeling the bruise already start to form. She still hadn't been eating or sleeping well, considering the treatment she'd gotten upon arrival to Toumei High School, so she bruised easily.

She felt the tears start to well back up in her eyes, but Mari was resolved to look down harshly to hide those tears from Nakanishi-kun, one of the many students here who took pleasure in making fun of her.

"Sorry," Nakanishi said, not sounding sorry at all. "I didn't notice you."

Mari clenched her fists, exuding the same dark and gloomy aura that she had perfected over the past two months.

"Come on," Nakanishi-kun said, shoving her a little more. "I said it wasn't on purpose. Right? I apologized, didn't I?"

He shoved her a little more with every question.

Right when she felt the tears about to drip down, Mari whipped around silently and walked away.

"And she walks as nothing happened," Nakanishi-kun said, gleefully. "Everything she does is fun to watch. Her name is Tachibana and she's in my class, but she's freakishly gloomy and she doesn't speak. Apparently no one's even heard her voice."

That did it. Even though she was still in the depths of her grief, even though she had become considerably weaker as a result of lack of eating and sleeping, Mari had had enough of joking at her expense for the day. Before Nakanishi-kun knew what was coming, Mari whipped around, tears floating in mid-air…and roundhouse kicked Kurosawa Yamato-kun in the face. She was so furious that she couldn't even be bothered that she had kicked the wrong person.

"Leave me alone!" she said, wiping away angry tears that streamed down her face. "Why can't you just leave me alone?!"

She stormed out of the hallway and punched open the school doors past the shocked faces and whispers of onlookers. Not only would her knees be bruised from the initial fall, she thought to herself, still wiping away tears, but now her knuckles would be bruised from that punch. And, of course, _everyone_ would be talking about this, now. At least the administration wouldn't care that she skipped her last period… _I guess fame can give you something, huh?_ Mari thought to herself bitterly. She passed the school gate entrance and dropped into a hunch on the floor, clutching herself and allowing herself to cry in earnest finally.

When she had arrived in Japan, she didn't know exactly what she was expecting to accomplish. She met her grandmother, who helped her find a luxury apartment right outside of Ginza next to Hibiya Park. The nature there soothed her nerves and was worth the forty-minute train ride to her high school. Although she had once been an extroverted, bright, and funny young celebrity, these days Mari couldn't have been farther from that image. Frail, cold, gloomy, and without a care in the world for her appearance, it was all Mari could do to arrive to school in her oversized, frumpy uniform. At the time, she still wasn't ready to go back to her fun, old self, and so she established herself early on as distant and removed from her classmates.

 _It's okay_ , Mari thought to herself, wiping away the last remains of her tears. _I don't need friends, anyway. I'm just here to see where dad grew up…_

Someone coughing pointedly interrupted her reverie. Mari gasped quietly and looked up to see Kurosawa-kun himself standing above her, looking slightly embarrassed.

"Um, are you okay? I wanted to find you to apologize about earlier…" he paused, noticing her red face. "Are you crying?"

"N-no," Mari stuttered, wiping her face one last time and struggling to stand up. She lost her balance and began falling forward, but Kurosawa-kun caught her by the hand. She winced as he'd grabbed exactly where her bruise was forming.

Kurosawa-kun's eyes trailed where Mari's were and saw the bruise. "Are you okay?!" he said, now alarmed. "Is this from earlier?"

"I'm fine," Mari said brusquely, extracting her hand from Kurosawa-kun's grasp and fixing her backpack.

She started walking toward the train station, blatantly ignoring Kurosawa-kun's trailing presence.

"It's just—" Kurosawa-kun started. "I did want to apologize about what Nakanishi said."

Mari hesitated in her steps.

"It was unacceptable and uncalled for. You did nothing to make him say such mean things."

She stopped and looked at him. "I'm sorry," she said gruffly, extending her other, non-injured hand with a roll of bandaids.

Kurosawa-kun looked at her extended hand, confused.

"For hitting you," she explained. "It was an accident. I was aiming for Nakanishi-kun and didn't realize you were there."

Kurosawa-kun looked at the bandaids, then looked at Mari, and then burst out laughing.

"What?!" Mari said, feeling the heat rise to her cheeks.

"You're really interesting, Tachibana-san," Kurosawa-kun said, grinning. "I'd like to get to know you."

* * *

Over the next month, one way or another, Mari and Kurosawa _did_ get to know each other. Although it took a lot of prodding on the part of Kurosawa, Mari slowly but surely began opening up again. She met and befriended Aiko and Asami, got on better terms with Nakanishi and Aiko's boyfriend Masashi, and started eating better. Eating better allowed her to start working out, little by little, at the exercise room downstairs at her apartment, and so she started sleeping better, too. Even though her clothing was still frumpy and she didn't do anything to help her appearance, Mari's natural beauty began to show through once more, eliciting the talk and notice of boys and girls alike. But, still, Mari kept her distance, not allowing anyone to visit her apartment or learn much about her life outside of school.

Still, though, Mari reasoned with herself, sitting among her laughing friends during their lunch break with Kurosawa's hand right next to hers. I'm getting there.

"Ne, everyone," Asami said, prodding Mari from her thoughts. "What do you think about going to the beach for summer break? We could stay for the weekend!"

Nakanishi cheered immediately at the thought of spending more time with Asami, and Aiko and Masashi gave their good-natured consent, but Mari had frozen on the bench there, her smile fading fast.

"Mei?" Kurosawa said, now touching her hand.

She drew back involuntarily, and Kurosawa frowned. He placed his hand over hers.

"You're trembling, Mei," Kurosawa said, now concerned. "What's wrong?"

Asami and the rest of their friends had yet to notice Mari's concern, still talking excitedly about their plans for the beach. Mari felt cornered. She wasn't sure if she wanted to tell Kurosawa about her reluctance to visit a beach (since it was her father's favorite place to go), but she knew it wasn't a conversation she wanted to have here, in front of everyone else and at school with other strangers walking around. Kurosawa seemed to realize this immediately as the thought crossed Mari's mind, and so he threw an arm over Mari's shoulders, effectively masking her from the rest of the group and made up an excuse that they needed to go get some materials for their next class. As they were walking away, Mari clutched Kurosawa's shirt, silently thanking him for the diversion. He smiled down at the top of her head, tightening his grip on her. They swung around the building at the last second and took a shortcut over to the alleyway where the stray kitten nested in its box. Mari broke from Kurosawa's arm and rushed over to the cat, hunched over and unsure how to explain herself. Kurosawa paused, before slowly crouching next to her. He tickled the underside of the kitten's neck.

"I think he's really starting to like me," Kurosawa started, breaking the silence.

Mari nodded in assent, reaching her hand forward to pet the kitten as well. Their fingers touched, and Kurosawa reached out to hold her hand. He pulled Mari close to him, again.

"Mei," Kurosawa murmured.

Mari bit her lip, wishing that she could just tell him the truth so that he could call her by her true name.

"What's wrong?"

She thought carefully about her words. Part of the reason Mari didn't talk much while at school was because she was afraid to misuse her Japanese and be found out, but after having spent more time with Kurosawa and his friends she'd become more confident in her Japanese.

"I—" Mari started. _Should I tell him everything?_ Mari thought to herself. _Am I ready?_

She shook her head. _Only the essentials, for now_.

"I'm afraid to go to the beach," she started, looking down face pressed in Kurosawa's shirt.

"Why?"

"The beach was my father's favorite place to go," she explained.

Kurosawa paused. "Was?" he repeated.

Mari nodded into his shirt. "He died," she said, voice breaking. "He died half a year ago from cancer." She felt tears unwillingly wetting Kurosawa's shirt.

Kurosawa's grip tightened on her. He pulled her from a crouch into his lap. She blushed but was too overwhelmed to protest.

"Mei," Kurosawa started, at a loss with this news she had given him.

"Mari," she said suddenly. "Can you…can you call me Mari?"

Kurosawa tilted his head in confusion.

Mari's thoughts started racing. She looked up and relaxed the tiniest bit when it became clear that Kurosawa hadn't made any connection.

"It's just," she stuttered, trying to come up with a plausible explanation. "Everyone close to me calls me Mari instead of Mei. It's an old family joke, and I feel like you should be able to call me that…Yamato."

Yamato's eyes widened—that was the first time Mari had called him by his first name.

"Mari," he tested the name out, and Mari closed her eyes in happiness as she heard him say her real name for the first time.

Yamato cupped her face gently, and she looked up with watery eyes at his serious face.

"Mari," he said again, kissing her gently. "Mari."

"I love you," he said simply and kissed her again before Mari had a chance to say anything back. "I know it will take you a while to say those words back to me, but thank you for sharing something of your life with me today. I'm so very happy."

And he did look so happy, a light twinge of pink on his cheeks and tears brimming at the corner of his eyes. Mari's eyes widened—she'd never seen Yamato cry before.

She reached up and wiped away the tears before they could fall.

"Please don't tell anyone about that, though," Mari said quietly, voice muffled because she had nuzzled her head back into his shirt. "I'm not ready for anyone else to know about my father or 'Mari.'"

Yamato hugged her tightly again. "Of course, Mari."

* * *

There was only a month left until summer break, and everything seemed to be going well for Mari. She had gained back all of her weight plus a few pounds more and for the first time since her father's death, Mari could say that she was almost happy. That is, until _she_ came.

"Kitagawa Megumi to attend Toumei High School" Asami slapped the magazine headline on Mari's desk and squealed. "Everyone, everyone, look! _The_ Megu-tan is going to be at our high school!"

"Who?" Yamato asked, still reading his book leisurely.

"Megu-tan," Asami said, exasperated. "Haven't you read a magazine in the last, like, six months? Megu-tan is the new hot, young fashion model in Japan! She's even done shoots in America!"

While Asami scolded Yamato, Mari had turned as pale as a ghost. With shaking hands, she pulled the magazine closer to her. Undoubtedly, it was her. Megumi Kitagawa: the girl with whom Mari was supposed to do a shoot as her debut feature in America…until she had cancelled all of her upcoming plans for her father's funeral. _This girl…_ Mari thought to herself. _Is bound to recognize me._ Panicked, Mari silently breathed in very deeply to get a semblance of control over herself.

"Um," she said suddenly, cutting off Asami. "I just remembered that my grandmother wanted me to swing by her house today, so I'm going to leave now." Her hair fell forward, hiding her expression as she stood up. "Yamato, sorry, we can walk to the train station tomorrow together!"

Right as Mari was gathering her things, she heard girls' squeals ringing down the hallway. Mari looked down immediately. Heels clacked on the linoleum and stopped at their classroom. The door rolled open, and a girl with big, curly hair and bright eyes stepped inside, a trail of girls in her wake.

"I guess this is my new class!" the girl who was clearly Megu-tan exclaimed, hands on her hips.

Asami squeaked, dropping her books and practically flung herself toward Megu-tan, ushering her toward Mari and the rest of their friends. Shaking, Mari continued to stare at the floor as though her life depended on it, and slowly edged her way around Megu-tan head down while backing slowly toward the door.

Yamato watched Mari's behavior the entire time, confused at her sudden jerky movements but was caught off guard by the sudden entrance of Megu-tan and the screaming girls and Asami. Megu-tan walked up to Yamato, eyes sparkling and extended her hand.

"I'd like to get to know you better, Mr…." Megu-tan prompted for his name, her voice especially sultry.

Yamato froze, looking at her extended hand and peering around to see Mari's face. Her face was white with fear and she looked like she was about to pass out. Swaying, Mari pushed her way through the girls still trying to push their way into the classroom and went running as fast as she could.

"Um," Yamato said, thoughts racing. He pushed past Megu-tan's hand, "Excuse me."

The girls gasped as Yamato politely ushered his way through the crowd to follow after Mari.

"Mei! Mei!" They could all hear Yamato yelling Mari's faux-name down the hallway.

Megu-tan was silent for a moment, and the girls all hushed to see her response. After a brief pause, she looked up and smiled.

"That must have been his girlfriend, huh?" Megu-tan said to the room.

All at once, the girls began talking.

"Yes, that was Tachibana Mei, but you're _so_ much better than her!"

"Yeah, you could steal Kurosawa-kun from her in a heartbeat!"

"We don't even know why he likes her…."

"Um!" Asami interjected into the group of girls hesitantly. "Mei is my friend, and I don't appreciate you all talking about her like that!"

The girls all began muttering darkly, but Megu-tan just smiled brighter. She patted Asami on the head and turned to the girls. "Now, girls, she's right. That's no way to talk about one of our classmates! I'm sure we'll all come to be good friends, ne?"

The girls cheered, and Megu-tan looked down, her smile darkened with purpose. _All except one of you_ , she thought, picturing the shadowy figure of this Mei who seemed to have captured that beautiful boy's heart.

Mari's exercises had started to pay off, so Yamato barely saw her retreating frame slip out the school gate entrance right when he'd just left the school's main doors. He only managed to catch her getting onto the train right before the doors closed.

"Mari!" Yamato huffed, hands on his knees trying to catch his breath. "Why…did you run like that?"

"Um," Mari said, huffing equally. "I just…realized I was going to miss this train to visit my grandmother if I didn't hurry."

Yamato let out one last big breath of air and then sat next to Mari on the train. "You looked like you'd just seen a ghost," he countered, putting a hand over hers.

She flinched, and he rose his eyebrows. "Mari….?"

"I told you not to call me that in public!" she said, raising her voice just enough to have other train users stare at her. She turned red and put her face in his shirt. "Sorry…"

Yamato relaxed into her and put his arms around her. "What's wrong, Mari?" he whispered so that only she could hear him.

Mari paused, hands pressed against Yamato's hard, warm chest. _Should I tell him now? But it's been so long since we started dating… What if he gets angry with me for keeping this secret?_ She fidgeted. _But how else can I explain why I don't want to see Megu-tan?_

"I can't talk about it," she said finally. "Not yet…I—" she stuttered into his chest. "I want to tell you everything, but I'm not ready yet. Just like how I don't know how to tell you that I lov—" she cut off, dark red in the face and suddenly looked up at Yamato.

His eyes were wide with shock, having realized what Mari was just about to say, to confess her feelings. A million thoughts raced through Yamato's head as he tried to grasp the seriousness in Mari's voice when she told him that there's more that she's hiding from him than he thought and that she does actually truly have feelings for him…something he'd been worried about for a while. For now, he thought to himself, all he could do was love her as much as he could and let her take things as slow as she needed. He smiled and nuzzled his forehead against hers.

"Okay, Mari," he whispered.

Mari looked up at him with wide eyes, still very red in the face, shocked that Yamato could be so kind and considerate. Her eyes widened even further when she realized the provocative position they were in on the train in public in front of all of these strangers. She pushed him away almost violently, babbling inconsistently. Yamato laughed his deep, musical laugh, and Mari couldn't help but smile.

"Um," Yamato said, looking up at the stops. "Exactly how far are you going until you get off the train?"

They had never actually taken the train before, because Mari always having been adamant to part their separate ways especially since Yamato lived on the southern side of town while she lived on the east side. Mari jolted when she realized that she had automatically taken the train to her home instead of to her grandmother's.

"Oh no!" Mari shouted, standing up quickly. "I accidentally took the train to home instead of my grandmother's!" She slumped into her seat, pulling out her phone. "She's going to be so sad to have missed me. I'll message her, now."

"I don't think I've ever seen you use your phone before, Mari," Yamato observed, watching Mari type with impressive speed. "And that's a brand new phone, too."

Mari blushed. "Well, I don't like to use phones if I don't have to as you know, and I just recently got a new phone because I didn't like my old one."

 _Because too many agencies had that number and wouldn't leave me alone,_ Mari thought to herself.

"Where exactly are we getting off?" Yamato asked lightly.

It was at that moment that Mari realized that Yamato was on the train with her en route to her apartment in Ginza, one of the most expensive neighborhoods in Tokyo, and she had never invited anyone to her apartment before. On top of that, it would become obvious that she was living alone at this apartment….there were so many things that Yamato could learn about her by coming and…" She turned red. Mari had had her fair share of kisses and more during her career, but she was still a virgin, and as her feelings for Yamato grew she became more aware of the seriousness of their relationship and where it could go.

"U-um," Mari stuttered. "We can get off here!"

"The Ginza stop?" Yamato asked, puzzled.

"I live right next to the park," Mari said quietly.

Yamato said nothing, seeing how uncomfortable Mari was at the prospect of having someone over to her apartment. Asami and the rest of their friends had bugged Mari relentlessly to let them even know where she lived, but she always managed to find a way to get out of the subject. Yamato felt jittery realizing that he would be the first of everyone to see her place, and alone at that. They'd been together for a month and he didn't even know where she lived, but now that would all be fixed. _But wow_ , Yamato thought to himself. _This is a nice area to be living, pretty much as nice as the area in where I live…And Mari has a brand new phone. I don't even know if those have gone on sale yet to the public…_

Mari was quiet all during Yamato's musings as she guided him to the glass, very minimalistic and edgy apartment that hovered on the edge of Hibiya Park. In the elevator, Mari silently pressed the button and swiped her key card for the top floor, all while not looking at Yamato's expression at all. He observed this in silence. The elevator door opened to a small greeting antechamber, and Yamato calmly took off his shoes to show that he wasn't planning on leaving any time soon. Suddenly, Mari grabbed his sleeve. Still looking down, she whispered, "Can you just wait here for a minute? I didn't think that anyone would be here, so I just want to clean up quickly."

The apartment looked spotless from what he could see, which was an expansive kitchen on the right and a dining room on the left, but he could tell that Mari was nervous so he smiled and assented, pulling out a chair in the closed off dining room area. Mari kicked her shoes off in haste and scrambled into the apartment. The apartment was, of course, clean, but she just wanted to do one last check to make sure there wasn't anything in her apartment that would give away her past life as an American or as a model. She ran upstairs quickly and did a scan on her bedroom before blushing realizing that she had just made an assumption that they would even find themselves up there in the first place. Satisfied with her search, Mari scampered down the stairs to where Yamato was still sitting in the dining room.

"Okay," she huffed. "Everything is good now. Would you like a tour of the apartment?"

She fidgeted, feeling somewhat formal. Yamato smiled and nodded.

The dining room in which he had been sitting was extremely minimalistic, the wooden table made of fine cedar and a matching cedar cabinet that displayed crystal clear dishware. The wall furthest to the back was made of a foggy glass, which seemed like it could be pushed into the wall to open up the dining room to the area beyond. To the right of the dining room and lobby area was the kitchen, which had the same cedar wood for cabinets, the sink and surfaces made of the same clear glass. The refrigerator exterior was made of the same cedar wood to streamline the aesthetic of the kitchen; but, as Mari opened the refrigerator to show him that he was welcome to anything there, Yamato saw that the inside was structured with the same glass material, filled sparsely with plain fruits, yogurts, healthy drinks, and expensive water bottles. The kitchen and lobby opened up to the living room, which covered an area that was equivalent in size to the areas Mari had already shown plus a little more. The walls were lined from ceiling to floor with books of all languages and topics, accompanied by two rolling ladders. The floor and bookshelves matched that same cedar tone, and a glossy black, grand piano rested on a fuzzy white rug in the far right corner. On the left side, Mari had set up an easel with painting supplies and a utilitarian grey stool, also complete with a fuzzy white rug, but this one had specks and splashes of paint mixed into it. A set of weights and a yoga mat were folded up on the far left side in a glass box behind the painting materials, and Yamato had to stop himself from fantasizing Mari pulling out the mat into the center of the otherwise bare living room to exercise. In the very middle of the big and empty room there was a large, grey sofa with soft white furry blankets draped artistically across it that faced out toward the wall furthest from them, which was made completely of glass and allowed for the a beautiful view of Hibiya Park and the sunset that was set to occur in the next half an hour.

Yamato could hear Mari talking nervously during this time, but he was too absorbed in drinking in every small detail that he could about Mari, scanning the bookshelves for book titles, tracing his hand lightly over the very good painting of the view of Hibiya Park that he was seeing at that moment, the sheet music to a Chopin nocturne with ink markings scribbled in between notes, noticing the small glass trinkets of bears that were placed on the glass and cedar coffee table in front of the sofa. The apartment was so minimalistic that Yamato treasured every one of these small details that he found that told him just a little bit more about Mari and her life. When he'd had enough observing for that moment, Yamato turned and hugged Mari closely, abruptly cutting off whatever she had been in the middle of rambling.

"Thank you for allowing me to come here," he said seriously yet softly, rubbing his thumb against her ear. "I'm honored that you allowed me into this part of your life."

"Um, I'm glad," Mari stuttered, face pressed against Yamato's chest sideways. "I'm glad you're happy."

"Can I see upstairs now?" Yamato asked, watching how the sunset reflected into Mari's eyes as those eyes widened with the implication he was obviously hinting. He wanted to see her bedroom.

"S-sure," Mari said, with forced cheerfulness, grabbing his hand and pointedly looking away while she half-dragged him toward the glass stairs that led upward.

"Upstairs here is the laundry closet first, and that area on the left leads out to a balcony. We can go there at the end of the tour. And next is this guest bedroom—" she opened the door for a split second, but there wasn't much to see other than a plain bed made up and a cedar drawer and desk and nightstand with a glass lamp and various tasteful, Japanese paintings. "And finally…" Mari trailed off, opening the last door in the house. "This is my bedroom."

She held the door formally, not stepping in herself but granting him permission to walk in. Yamato pushed the glass switch to turn on the small glass chandelier that hung in the middle of the room. Like downstairs, the wall furthest from them was completely glass, and a pair of thick grey, curtains could cover the wall automatically upon command. Mari's room was as simple as the rest of the apartment: a cedar desk in the far right corner facing the glass wall; a single drawer with a large, plain glass mirror hanging above with a small supply of makeup and perfumes and a few necklaces hanging in and on glass containers; an open-door, walk-in closet with the suggestion of many more of the same baggy, minimalistic clothing pieces that Mari always tended to wear, a door to the bathroom, which boasted a shower and glass tub in the middle; a plain cedar nightstand with a glass and cedar small, speaker system and a glass lamp (all just like the guest room's furniture), and a large, queen-sized bed with the same white, furry style as the blankets and rugs draped in the living room below. Tracing his fingers along the bedspread, Yamato walked over to Mari's desk and saw a closed envelope addressed to what seemed to be Mari's mother. On the second layer of the desk were two picture frames: one with Mari, himself, Asami, and Aiko, and the rest of their friends and the other—Yamato blushed deeply—one of Yamato and Mari that they had taken while on one of their dates. Yamato turned to Mari, the happiness on his face so evident because she had chosen to personalize her room with a photo of them together. Mari was as red as him, understanding that he'd seen the photo of the two of them together. She'd taken a few more steps into the room, just enough that Yamato could turn quickly, grab her hand, and pull her tumbling onto the bed with him. She shrieked in surprise and initially tried to push Yamato away, but he held on resolutely and eventually she relaxed into his arms. The sun was just on the edge of setting over the horizon of trees in the park, casting a subdued light pink hue over the couple on the bed.

Yamato rolled over, leaning over Mari's blushing face, his body pressed onto hers meaningfully.

"Mari," Yamato said loudly, relishing in the ability to say her name without whispers or moments of hesitation. He kissed her firmly, holding both of her hands, which had now long since relaxed spread out to her sides. They kissed like that for a few moments, leisurely exploring each other's mouths in a way that wasn't possible in a school environment which only allowed for a quick peck on the lips here and there or in public where a stranger might happen across them at any moment. Yamato deepened the kiss, releasing Mari's left hand so that he could cup her face before tangling that hand into her curly hair. Mari immediately used that hand to grasp the back of Yamato's shirt, pulling him closer. Maybe the person she had become since her father's death and since then in Japan wouldn't be bold enough to assert herself in this way, but there were some parts of Mari's new self that she was ready to shed away, and this was one of them. Realizing that Mari wasn't going anywhere, Yamato released her other hand and used both of his hands to pull Mari's face closer, kissing her even more insistently. Both hands freed, Mari began rubbing her hands up and down Yamato's back through his shirt, desperate to get closer. Yamato let out a low growl and ripped his mouth away from Mari's suddenly to her dismay, but she was then rewarded by Yamato's mouth leaving bite trails down her neck. His hands began deftly unbuttoning her school shirt, and Mari gasped, slipping her hands under Yamato's shirt to feel the heat of his skin. Yamato's eyes were glazed over in lust as he pushed off Mari's shirt and leaned up to fling it off the bed, during which time Mari also completed her unbuttoning of Yamato's shirt which then went flying off next to her own. Yamato pressed his hips into Mari's and she gasped, feeling him and seeing that look like he wanted to devour her as he seemed to hover, restraining himself over her.

"Mari," Yamato said, his voice deep with arousal. "Tell me to stop now, right now, or else I don't think I can anymore."

Mari was breathing deeply—everything had escalated so quickly but her mind was a fog where all she could see and focus on was Yamato, Yamato's face and Yamato's hard body.

"Don't you dare stop," she said finally, grabbing him by the belt and pulling him forward aggressively.

The sun set right as their lips connected once more, and they stayed that way for the rest of the night.

* * *

 **Whew! That's all for now. As I said before, read/review/favorite if you want to see more of this!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you to those kind people who reviewed my first chapter. I'm really happy you enjoyed it, so here's another chapter! It's not quite as long (because I'm very busy at the time), but that means that there should be enough for at least one or two more chapters. As always, I appreciate reviews/any indication that you enjoy this work :)**

* * *

Mari stretched and rolled over in bed, instantly connecting with a foreign object. She flinched and started to panic for a second until the events of night before suddenly all came back to her. Relaxing, Mari very gently curled into Yamato's chest, and his arm (which she had been sleeping on) instinctively pulled her even closer. His head lowered unconsciously inhaling her scent deeply. She smiled and nuzzled her head against his chest, slowly intertwining her legs with his only to pause when she noticed from his body's current state that Yamato must have been having a very pleasant dream. As if he could read her mind, Yamato groaned, flexing his arms and legs, and popped an eye open to meet Mari's own eyes.

His eyes focused slowly from sleep; but, once he recognized where he was, he smiled lazily, eyes still blinking. Mari smiled a little more, pressing her nose against his chest. Suddenly, Yamato's arms tightened around her and he pulled her small body on top of his chest. He leaned forward, pressing a kiss on her forehead.

"Morning, love," Yamato said, his voice still crackling and deep from sleep and somehow even more attractive.

"Mmm," Mari responded, almost unconsciously tracing her hands up and down Yamato's chest.

He kissed her tenderly, a few on the lips, a few on her jaw, and one again on her forehead.

"So…" he started. "Last night was fun."

Mari blushed, burying her face in his chest once more. Yamato laughed and Mari paused.

"Yeah," she said shyly, slowly looking back up at him.

Yamato's laugh died out and his expression turned more serious.

"Mari," he said, looking into her eyes and kissed her again. "Thank you."

"Huh?" Mari tilted her head.

"For letting me into your apartment, for telling me about yourself, for letting me into your life," Yamato clarified, still holding her tightly. "Even though we've been dating for a month, I felt like I didn't know anything about you. It actually made me worry a lot. I can admit that now because I feel like we're finally on the track to being open with each other."

Yamato smiled, cupping her face.

Mari tried to smile back, but she could only avert her eyes and unconsciously lean away from Yamato.

"Mari?" Yamato asked, immediately noticing her change of demeanor. "Did I say something wrong?"

"No!" Mari said immediately, red on her cheeks. "No, you were perfect."

Somehow she felt tears coming to her eyes, and she bit her tongue to bite them back. "You _are_ perfect. It's just—"

"It's just what?" Yamato pressed.

Mari paused. "I…I haven't been completely honest with you," she whispered.

Yamato froze. His mind started to race. _Hasn't been fully honest with me?_ Yamato thought to himself, his eyes then catching his discarded t-shirt on the ground a few feet away. _Is there someone else in her life? Other than me?_ He slowly pulled his hands away from Mari's waist, which only upset her further. That was the first time that Yamato had pulled away from her. He had always insisted to hold on to her when no one else seemed to even notice her, and now he let go of her.

 _Of course I can't tell him now_ , Mari thought to herself miserably. _He'd definitely hate me for hiding so much of my life from him._ She felt the tears start to well up again now in earnest, so she pushed out of the bed, wrapping herself in one of the larger blankets tightly.

"I'm going to take a shower now," she said, almost brusquely to try to control the wavers she felt in her throat. "There's another shower in the guest room. School starts in 45 minutes, so we better get ready so we can catch the train."

Yamato was silent, still trying to take in how his perfect yesterday could turn into such a horrible now. Mari only paused for one more second before shutting the door to the bathroom firmly.

The water pressure from the showerhead was loud enough to muffle her crying as long as she stayed quiet enough. Mari pressed her head against the side of the shower, allowing the water, which was heating up to scalding temperatures, to beat on her back. She cried quietly for a long time, very slowly decompressing her sadness so that she wouldn't break out into loud sobs that would draw Yamato's attention. A long time passed until Mari realized that she'd probably be late to school. Begrudgingly, she pulled herself out of the shower and pulled on her uniform, not even bothering with her appearance save for a wet, tangled ponytail that soaked the back of her uniform. She trudged down the stairs, eyes probably still red from the sheer amount of crying she'd just done, trying to quicken her pace as she had a total of 10 minutes to get to school when it would take at least 30 to get there by train. She rounded the corner to the door and was shocked to see Yamato waiting there, arms crossed and leaning against the wall.

 _He waited for me?_

"I'm sorry I'm late," Mari said quietly, quickly putting on her sneakers. "I figured you would have left."

Yamato's only response was to tighten his grip on his backpack before wordlessly opening the door and setting off.

The ride to school was awkward, to say the least. They parted ways at the door right as second period had started; so a few people saw them enter together. And those few people also saw Yamato immediately walk the other way without even so much as saying goodbye to Mari.

Mari bit her lip, willing herself not to cry as she walked to her homeroom.

Megu-tan looked up at the sound of the classroom door opening and saw the so-called legend of Tachibana Mei basically drag herself into her seat, a pool of water quickly forming directly behind her desk as a result of too-wet hair. The rumors followed with her, informing Megu that not only were Tachibana and Kurosawa obviously together last night but that they also seemed not to be on good terms. _A perfect time for me to move in_ , Megu thought to herself, smiling widely. When the lunch bell rang, Megu beelined straight for Tachibana's desk, extending a hand to the still obviously upset girl who's head was bent over.

"Hi!" Megu said cheerfully. "I'm Megu-tan, and it's nice to meet you!"

The girl said nothing and kept her head down.

"I thought it might be nice to eat lunch today since we didn't get to meet yesterday or earlier today before school started," Megu tried again, dropping her extended hand when she realized that Tachibana would not be returning the favor any time soon.

Mari was frozen in her seat. _What do I do? I can't just sit here forever—she's going to find out! Maybe she won't recognize me? I do look pretty bad right now. Well, I guess there's no point in avoiding the inevitable. Either she'll recognize me or she won't, and it's bound to happen eventually._ Mari looked up and grimaced, seeing Megu-tan's shocked expression and realizing that her game was up.

"You…" Megu started, rendered speechless. "You were supposed to be there for my debut in America. You—" she cut herself off, suddenly grabbing Mari's arm looking around and only relaxing when she realized that everyone had left the classroom already for lunch.

"Mari-chan?" Megu said, dropping her arm. "Is that _you_?"

"Um…" Mari started.

"It _is_ you!" Megu asserted, putting her hands on her hips. "Where on earth have you been? Here? At school? How has no one recognized you? You do look pretty terrible, to be honest. A little chubby. Even I barely recognized you and I looked at pictures of you every single day for years. But why are you here? You know the agencies are still looking for you?"

As Megu bombarded her with question after question, Mari felt herself getting more and more upset and critical of herself. It was just like being back in that cutthroat industry where people would do and say whatever to get ahead of you. "I just really needed a break," she tried to explain feebly.

"Are you kidding me?" Megu demanded. "Do you know how many people would give their right arm to be in the position you're in? You're famous _for life_. One of the greats and you're still in high school. And now you're complaining that you don't want it? I don't get you, _Marumi_ ," she sneered, using Mari's old stage name. Mari flinched. All of a sudden, a light bulb came on over Megu's head.

"But," Megu started, still processing her idea. "You probably don't want anyone to know about your identity, do you? Otherwise people would like you way more at this point, right? So it would be really unfortunate for me to tell everyone right now, right?"

Mari turned white. "Please," she started, raising a hand in supplication.

"I know, I know," Megu waved her off. "I won't tell anyone on one condition."

"Anything," Mari swore.

Megu smiled. "Break up with Kurosawa-kun."

Mari's heart stopped.

"You guys are already in a fight now so it's perfect timing. Break up with him. Don't look at him, don't talk to him, don't do anything with him ever again."

"But Yamato is…everything to me," Mari stuttered, still in shock.

"Is he worth more than your secret?" Megu prodded.

Mari couldn't give her an answer. Megu smiled. "I'll be seeing you around, _Tachibana Mei_ ," Megu waved, curtly closing the classroom door.

Mari stared at her desk, watching her tears stain the wood. She clenched her fists. _Maybe this is for the best_ , Mari thought to herself bitterly. _I didn't deserve him anyway_. She stilled herself, took a deep breath, looked to the ceiling, and smiled.

 _It'll be just like when dad died_ , she thought to herself. _Turn it off_. _Turn everything off._

The light turned off in Mari Maruyama's heart for the second time.

* * *

Over the last month of the first quarter, Mari suffered. Her dreams were haunted with the swimming faces of those she used to call friends: Asami-chan, Aiko-chan, Nagi-chan, Nakanishi-kun…they had all stopped calling her after hearing Yamato's perceived notion of what had happened, and they didn't know where she lived, anyway. She tried going to school for the first two and a half weeks after her conversation with Megu, but opted out of the finals period (for once, she could be thankful that the high school's administration was in her pocket) because it took too much energy to climb the stairs to the train station. She had lost a lot of weight again and was now hovering very dangerously at 105 pounds.

Summer vacation was here.

She hadn't left her apartment since she called in sick to the school, so she was living off of stale bread and expired orange juice. She slept for the majority of most days, largely out of exhaustion from lack of food, and she always had the most blinding headache from dehydration.

With dull eyes, Mari lifelessly flipped through the fashion magazine that had been shoved through her door's mailbox. Her eyes landed on a photo spread of Yamato and Megu in a suggestive position. She scanned Megu's post-shoot interview and immediately put two and two together that Megu now had feelings for Yamato and they had been eating dinner together regularly after shoots. She closed her eyes in resignation. It was better this way for everyone. She hadn't been able to cry for the last week and a half, but she knew she would be if she could. Absentmindedly, Mari scratched the thin white lines of scars that had slowly been building up on the inside part of her arms. As a veteran of the woes of the fashion industry, she knew exactly how deep she could cut before the scarring lotion wouldn't help anymore and was still unconsciously abiding by those rules, only allowing herself the tiniest bit of release.

She jolted when she heard her phone ring. It had been silent for the last few weeks, save for the occasional text from her mom or grandmother which was easy for her to navigate around. Mari stared at the incoming call—it was from her part-time job at the bakery. She sighed before answering.

"Mari? It's me. I know you took the last two weeks off for vacation to study for finals, but we really need you back in here for the break," her boss said over the phone. "When can you be back?"

Mari held the phone loosely in her tiny hands. "I can come in this Monday," she said weakly, not wanting to disappoint another person if she could try her hardest.

"Are you okay?" her boss asked over the phone. "You sound sick."

"Um," Mari said, trying to think of an adequate excuse for her appearance. "I had really bad food poisoning these past two weeks, so I lost a lot of weight and it's been hard. I don't know how much help I'll be, but I'll try my hardest."

"That's okay honey. I hired a young man new to town to replace Chiharu for the break because she's going on a long vacation with her parents, so he should be able to do most of the brute labor."

Mari gave her thanks and then hung up. She gripped the side of the chair she had been sitting in for the past ten hours and made an effort to push herself up. _Too hard_ , she thought. _I've gotta get back into the practice of things._ She called in takeout delivery and crawled into the shower, trying to erase her days of complacency.

Monday came sooner than she thought, and Mari was coated in sweat and completely out of breath by the time she got to the bakery.

"I'm sorry I'm late," Mari wheezed, almost falling through the front door.

"Hello," said an unfamiliar, deep voice.

Mari looked up and locked eyes with a boy about her age. He was tall and lean, but certainly muscular, with dark golden hair and eyes that looked like they were always filled with laughter. But now, they were filled with concern.

Her sleeve started to drop off of her bony shoulder, and his eyes followed her motion to pull it back into place.

"Welcome to our store. Can I help you?" the boy asked politely.

Just then, Mari's boss bustled into the room with a tray of breads.

"Takemura-kun, could you be a dear and put these breads up on the top shelf and take out the next tray? That one was a little too heavy for me…" she trailed off as she spotted Mari.

"Mei-chan?" she said, aghast, rushing up to her. She grabbed both of Mari's arms and did a physical double take at her small frame when she reached for her arms and only got lots of fabric. "My dear, you were much sicker than I thought you were. You look like you've almost been erased from the earth! Come sit down. Takemura-kun, can you bring Mei-chan one of those fresh loaves of bread we just made?"

The boy named Takemura rushed out of the room at her boss's command.

"He's that fine young man I told you replaced Chiharu for the break," her boss whispered confidentially in Mari's ear, trying to lighten the mood after she almost rudely pointed out Mari's diminutive state.

"He seems very nice," Mari supplied, trying to come across as cheery.

Her boss's frown deepened, but she tried to smoothen her face so as to keep Mari from worrying. Takemura-kun came out with the bread.

"Ah," she said, standing at his entrance. "Takemura-kun, this is Mei-chan, your co-worker I was telling you about. She's been sick recently and just got better, so please be a dear and help her with that bread." She gave him a loaded look before walking out of the room.

"Nice to meet you," Mari said to him.

Takemura-kun handed Mari the bread and sat next to her, watching her while she ate in silence.

"Did you purposefully starve yourself?" he asked out of nowhere.

Mari choked on the small piece of bread that she had forced herself to eat.

"Sorry, that was nosy," he admitted, rubbing the back of his head.

Mari didn't say anything and took another tentative nibble of the bread, looking down.

Takemura-kun averted his gaze for a while before slowly glancing back over at Mari as she put her apron on over her small body, which is when he noticed her Land super-rare keychain.

"EHH?!" Takemura-kun said suddenly, leaping to his feet. "You have one of the super-rare Land keychains! Can I please have it?"

Mari looked up at him, eyes wide in shock. She looked down at the keychain, which she had pinned onto her apron before everything had gone wrong. She looked at the keychain sadly.

"Um, the person who gave this keychain to me used to be very important to me. He still is important to me, at least…so I'm not quite ready to give it up yet."

Takemura-kun paused, taking in what Mari had just said. "But you'll give it to me eventually?" he prodded.

Mari couldn't help but allow a small smile to form on her face. It was surprisingly refreshing to be around someone who was so dense they couldn't' see how much she was struggling. It almost felt like she could pretend it never happened.

"Yes," Mari said after a pause. "Yes, I think I can give it to you eventually."

* * *

 **Ah, the formulaic introduction of the rival character. Please rate/review if you want to know what happens next!**


	3. Chapter 3

**And I'm back with Chapter Three! Thank you to everyone who has reviewed with such kind encouragement and feedback. As always, I look forward to hearing your thoughts before continuing :)**

* * *

July eased into August, and Mari and Takemura's friendship blossomed just as effortlessly. Mari found herself smiling more and more at Takemura's lighthearted pokes to eat more, his quickness to excitement, and overall genuineness. He was a source of sunshine that much reminded Mari of her carefree days with Yamato before things got complicated. But his glow only worked its way skin-deep. As the days passed, Mari grew more fatigued and frail, despite her increase in exercise and eating.

Mari was deep in thought, staring at her fists as she clenched and unclenched the bundle of small bones. The bell chimed as the last customer of the day said her farewells, breaking her from her reverie. She sighed, flexing her fingers once more before pushing down on the chair to stand up...only to crash forward immediately into blackness. The last thing she heard was Takemura's panicked voice and arms trying to shake her back into reality.

* * *

Dark nothingness. A series of beeps consistently getting louder and closer at each interval slowly carved their way into the back of her mind and pulled her back to the present-Mari opened her eyes. She was in a hospital. Mari inhaled sharply. The last time she had been in a hospital was when her father... Tears sprung to her eyes almost immediately, and she began to breathe even heavier, which was immediately reflected in the heart rate monitor at her bedside. Sweat drenched her entire frame within seconds and her vision became fuzzy, darting from the ceiling to the long needle deeply embedded in the inside of her left forearm. Mari gasped-she was terrified of needles. The heart rate monitor began beeping violently as it hit 140, and a nurse then bustled in. It was then that she noticed Takemura asleep in the corner of the room.

"Miss? Are you ok?" the nurse asked.

Mari gasped, her heart rate escalating further as she dissolved into a full-blown panic attack, unable to voice her fears.

"Miss?" the nurse's voice rose in concern.

Takemura started to rouse at the noise. His eyes opened slowly, instantly locking on Mari's sheet-white expression.

"Mari?" Takemura said, leaping to his feet.

"Sir, we really can't have you-" the nurse started before Takemura waved her away, placing himself directly next to Mari's side.

"Mari," Takemura said, keeping his voice level. "Calm down, please."

"I can't," she wheezed. "I can't, I can't be here. Not in a hospital. Please not, please no."

"Mari," Takemura started, paling as he watched her heart rate escalate to further heights.

She suddenly began screaming, thrashing in the bed which caused the IV in her arm to prickle sharply.

"Let me out of here! PLEASE!" Mari yelled, tears streaming down her face.

"MARI," Takemura yelled sharply, causing her to stop immediately and lock eyes.

Despite his harsh tone, he held her hands as would a farmer to a newborn animal.

"Mari," he repeated coaxingly, slowly stroking her hand before moving to stroke her hair. "Please, listen to me. Please calm down."

Two more nurses shuffled into the room, but the first nurse held up a hand as she watched on.

Mari let out a single squeak before moving her hand to grip Takemura's shirt tightly. She only twitched her hand forward for the tiniest signal, but Takemura understood immediately, leaning in to hug her small frame. She began to cry quietly, but her heart rate had leveled to an acceptable rate.

Takemura sighed, whispering reassuring fragmented sentences into her ear until she dozed off again. He nodded his head in both appreciation and dismissal of the nurses, and they took their leave.

Takemura looked down at Mari's small frame and smiled sadly, tracing her gaunt face with his fingers. He sat there like that for a while before his back started to cramp up from leaning over for so long. He tried to draw back slightly; but, looking at Mari's small hand on his shirt, he leaned forward again, gently picking up her frame and moving her to the far side of the bed so he could scoot in with her. She sighed deeply, unconsciously registering his warmth, and snuggled closer to him. A small smile rested on her face, and Takemura was happy, too, if only for a moment. He knew what bad news he had to bring to Mari the following day.

* * *

Mari woke up relaxed and warm. _Warm?_ she thought to herself, popping open an eye. And that's when everything came rushing back to her. She found her breath picking up again until she realized that Takemura's arm was cradling her tightly next to him, and he was fast asleep. She looked up from his broad chest at his peaceful expression and couldn't help but laugh lightly at the drool that was forming at the corner of his mouth. The rumble of laughter in her chest was enough apparently to prod him awake, and Takemura stretched widely before bumping into her body. Without opening his eyes, he pulled Mari closer to him, unconsciously nuzzling the bottom side of his jawline against the top of her head.

Mari blushed and coughed pointedly to break him from his sleep. Takemura woke suddenly. She watched his face turn from confusion, to joy at seeing her, to finally a deep sadness.

"Takemura-" Mari started, concerned, but right then the doctor shuffled in.

"Good afternoon, the nurses told me you were awake," the doctor said, taking a seat across from them.

Mari blushed deeply; but, before she could take any action, the doctor seemed to sense her distress.

"Please, don't worry," she said, motioning toward the two of them. "I'm sure you're wondering what exactly happened to you."

Mari tensed, hands tightening around Takemura's shirt once more. His warm hand suddenly clasped over her own, and she looked up at him. Whatever the doctor was going to say, Takemura definitely already knew, and it wasn't good. She looked back over to the doctor's grave expression.

"Ms. Maruyama," the doctor started. "I'm afraid you have Stage 1 cancer."

The good news was that they caught the cancer early enough that it didn't pose a significant threat to her life. The bad news was that she had to stay at the hospital for the next week to isolate and eradicate the cancer cells before they spread further, which meant she was stuck in this godforsaken place.

Mari stared lifelessly down at her fists, watching them clench and unclench helplessly. The doctor had left some long undetermined time before, but she wasn't counting the minutes. Takemura's big hands enveloped her own.

"It's okay, Mari," Takemura said reassuringly. "I'll stay with you until you can go home, and then I'll take care of you at home, too."

Mari was adamant that they didn't tell her grandmother, because she didn't want to worry her mother inadvertently.

"I can't allow you to do so much for me when you've already done so much," Mari said sadly, pushing his hand away. "I'm such a burden to you, Takemura-kun. I'm sorry."

"That's enough!" Takemura said, holding Mari's hands tightly.

She whimpered in fear, and he relaxed.

"Mari," Takemura said gently. "I'm not here out of obligation. I'm here because I _want_ to be here. I want to be here for _you_."

"For me?" Mari repeated. After having played a character for so long, Mari felt like Takemura was the first person to say her name and actually get through to her core sense of being. Her eyes began to water for what seemed like the hundredth time since she'd been admitted to the hospital's care.

"Takemura-kun, thank you," Mari said with a small smile.

Takemura smiled back, wiping the start of tears at the corner of her eyes one at a time.

"Kai," he said. "Please call me by my first name now. That's all I ask."

"Kai-kun," Mari tested, still unable to drop the honorific.

Kai gave one of his lopsided smiles and clasped her hands together with one of his big hands.

"I guess that's as close as I'll get today," he relented. "Now let's just focus on getting you out of here."

* * *

A few days later, Mari was released from the hospital, and Kai took her back to her apartment, where they lived together for the next two weeks in peace. Living together allowed the two to bond in a close way that would have been impossible under other circumstances. During that time, Mari got stronger; and, in her strength, she was able to pull away the secrets of her identity, piece by piece, to Kai.

The first hurdle was showing him her extravagant apartment. And, as he lived there, he uncovered more and more about her that one couldn't find by exploring the surface of the apartment. Kai learned about Mari's favorite foods, her favorite movies, her sense of fashion, and her core personality-unabridged from the facade that she put on in society-and she learned all these things of him, as well.

They had just a week left before summer vacation ended when Kai was perusing the aisles of the market looking for ingredients to cook Mari's favorite meal for that night's dinner when he saw the magazine with Yamato and Megu's latest photo shoot splashed over the cover. Against his better judgment, he picked up the magazine and began flipping through it. His eyes landed on the centerpiece, an interview with Megu-tan about her career and interests, and he naturally gravitated to the love interest section.

"Who I like? Ah, well...I do like someone a lot, someone who I've been doing a lot of work with recently. We actually eat dinner after every shoot now, so I love being able to be close to him on and off set. But he doesn't know just yet how much I like him! I'm hoping to confess soon 3"

Kai's eyes narrowed. He flipped back to the front cover with Yamato's impish expression and he knew. The magazine crumpled under his fist, and he threw it on the floor before stomping to the register. All he could think was _Mari cannot know_.

Meanwhile, Mari was watching TV when her phone chirped with a new notification from one of her favorite magazines. Even though she was out of the industry, she still liked to keep in touch with the latest news and trends. Naturally, it was unavoidable that the first article she would see was that centerpiece spread of Yamato and Megu-tan and her very obvious insinuations about Yamato.

Mari stared at the phone, blankly gazing at Yamato's cool expression and his arm that hung loosely over Megu's petite shoulders. She was angry.

"Mari-chan, I'm home!" Kai called, pushing through the front door with two handfuls of groceries. They landed on the counter with a satisfying thud when he saw Mari's expression as she glared down at her phone. He knew that she knew.

"Mari," he tested, walking slowly toward her. "Are you all right?"

Mari didn't say anything for the first few seconds; but, finally, she leaned back, sighly deeply.

"Kai-kun, I need to be 100% honest with you," Mari started.

She walked over to stand next to him, her hand reaching over in front of him as she calmly took out the vegetables and picked a sharp, long knife from the rack. She began chopping methodically while he stared at her confused.

Finally, she broke the silence.

"The reason why I stopped speaking to Yamato-kun is because I was threatened."

She continued to chop without hesitation.

"Threatened by Megu-tan that she would expose me to everyone in Japan if I didn't leave him alone."

"How did Megu-tan know you?" Kai wondered out loud, scratching his head.

Mari slowed her chopping, using the dull side to usher the finished slices into the bowl before moving on to the next ingredient.

"It would be easier to show you than to explain in words," Mari said flatly, continuing her chopping. "Go look in the DVD cabinet in the bookshelf and pull out the only case that's blank."

He paused for a moment before acquiescing. Sure enough, there was one DVD with a blank case. He hadn't even noticed it up to this point. Turning on the TV, he popped the disc in, and the loading sign began to swirl. He looked over his shoulder at Mari, but she was pointedly looking down at her vegetables, entirely focused on chopping the green onions as thin and precise as possible.

On the black screen suddenly came plain white text: "Mari Maryuma Portfolio - 2015." What followed was a very tastefully and professionally done visual portfolio of all of Mari's greatest works, from Vogue to fashion shows to talk shows to magazine spreads to her own fashion brand and more. Paparazzi and interviews galore.

Kai watched the whole ten-minute segment as picture after picture, clip after clip, of Mari flashed across the screen, and all he could think to himself was _How could I have been so stupid to miss this?_

Finally, the screen darkened once more, and Kai blinked back into the reality of Mari's constant chopping sounds. He turned around once more. It was unclear if Mari was crying because of the white onions or because of the portfolio. He walked in silence back over to her.

"Well, there you have it," she said bitterly, still not meeting his eyes. "I understand if you don't want to talk to me anymore, after having kept this secret for so long. Really-"

Kai grabbed the knife from Mari's hands and tossed it onto the sink before pulling her in closely.

"Mari," Kai said deeply, hugging her tightly.

Mari's hands were outstretched in shock, hovering around Kai's torso but not touching.

"You're not angry?" Mari asked into his chest.

Kai's head shook against the top of her head.

"No," he said quietly. "I'm just so sorry that I didn't know, that I didn't understand why you have felt the way you have over these past few weeks. I wish I had known early only so that I could help you."

Mari's eyes widened into earnest tears, now.

"Kai!" she said loudly, pulling away from him to look into his eyes for only a second before plunging back, drenching his shirt.

"Thank you, Kai," Mari cried. "I was so worried you wouldn't want to be my friend anymore! I-"

"Are you serious?" Kai said in disbelief, pulling her away. "If I were a shallow person, I would love you even more for your success. But as I am"-he pulled her closer-"I'm just glad that I know everything about Mari now, right?" He tilted his head for confirmation.

Mari gave him a watery smile.

"Yes," she confirmed. "Now you're the only one here who knows everything about me."

Kai grunted in approval. "Then that's all I needed."

"You're so possessive as a friend!" Mari joked, laughingly brushing him off before grabbing the knife again. She was beaming now.

Kai laughed shallowly, his eyebrows furrowing at her friendly implication.

"So," he said, trying to be casual. "What are you going to do?"

"Eh?" Mari asked.

"About Yamato and Megu-tan," Kai clarified. "Don't you want to get back at them?"

"Get back at them?" Mari repeated, confused.

"Well, yeah," Kai said, scratching the back of his neck. "They're sneaking around, and Yamato is really stupid not to realize what he's missing in you. The Marumi I remember from TV wouldn't have let something like that slide."

"The Marumi you know..." Mari repeated again, tapping her finger on her bottom lip.  
"I've spent so long being someone I'm not that I almost forget what I used to be like. It's difficult to decide what parts of my past personality to keep and which parts to leave behind."

"However," Mari added, breaking from her deep thoughts to make eye contact with Kai. She winked, "I think you might be right, here."

She scampered upstairs for a second before bringing down a star-studded iPhone that Kai hadn't seen before.

"Work phone," Mari explained, tapping it on. "Even now, I couldn't let it go uncharged just in case."

Kai leaned over her shoulder and saw the literal hundreds of notifications that Mari had yet to respond to. Even months later, she was still getting job offers from hopeful companies. Huffing exasperatedly, Mari closed out of all the notifications and turned to her contact favorites, clicking on one.

"Good morning, Ms. Shields," Mari said, suddenly in fluent English. "It's me, Marumi."

After a shellshocked second, Kai heard the woman on the other side of the phone begin shrieking with half praise half scolding.

"Yes, yes," Mari said calmingly, slowly pacing the room now. "I'm actually in Japan right now finishing up high school. Can you get a list of jobs lined up for me here for the next few months? You can go international during my school breaks. I'll send you the schedule now. And yes I can be flexible on leaving during school hours-the administration knows who I am and they'll bend over backwards for me. Yeah... Ok and also please get Yoshioka-san and his assistants in her for makeover. I'm going to need it before re-debuting out here pronto. Okay, okay, yes... Yes, thank you. I'll talk to you later."

The woman on the other side was clearly still listing off a series of updates when Mari hung up. Kai was clearly still reeling from Mari's change in personality. She smile, almost catlike, while stretching across the sofa.

"And she's back," Mari sung, rolling off the sofa onto the white fur rug.

* * *

 **Yay for empowerment! Yamato isn't going to know what hit him after Mari's through with him. And Megu, too :D**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello again, everyone! This chapter is a little bit longer than the last few, because I really wanted to get to the scene that ends it :D As such, I've been pretty busy these past few weeks, so a lot of this writing was done while very sleepy, so you could almost say some of this chapter is the product of my dreams. Haha ok that was corny. Anyway, I hope you enjoy! As always, please R &R to keep me motivated!**

* * *

Kai woke to the sound of breakfast being cooked downstairs. _Breakfast?_ he thought to himself, rolling out of bed in response to the delicious smell of bacon and pancakes. Typically, Kai was the one who made breakfast in the morning. And by typically, he meant always, because he was pretty sure Mari didn't know how to cook anything aside from microwavable goods. Padding down the stairs, Kai was shocked to see Mari leaning over an unidentified man's shoulder as said man cooked said breakfast.

"Mari-chan," the man scolded in English. "How many times have I told you _not_ to touch while it's hot?"

"But Yoshioka," Mari whined in her natural English. "You know it's my favorite and I haven't had it in forever."

She switched back over to Japanese. "Also, you know I can speak better Japanese now, so why must you insist on speaking in English?"

"Because now it seems you need to practice back up on your English," the man called Yoshioka reprimanded her. "Really, you need to learn how to keep more than one language on tabs ready to go, especially considering your impending worldwide position."

Before Mari could protest, the man skillfully dropped a pancake onto her plate, and Mari squealed, providing no further resistance.

"Ah, Kai-kun," Mari said upon seeing him. "You're awake. Would you like something to eat as well?"

The man at the oven scoffed, rolling up his sleeves more. "Really, Mari. I'm your stylist-not your friends' cook!"

Kai instantly relaxed as Yoshioka identified himself and turned. It was then that he noticed the living room had been transformed into a sort of makeup studio. The man was definitely at least 45 years old.

Just then, the doorbell rang.

"Yes!" Mari said loudly, reluctantly leaving her pancake for the slightest of moments to open the door for the small team of girls carrying large bags of what seemed to be an array of beauty products and equipment.

"Now, finish your meal quickly so we can get started on you," Yoshioka said, pointing his chopsticks threateningly at Mari before turning to Kai.

"Would you like anything to eat?" he said kindly, and Kai instantly felt at ease with the man.

"Ah, yes, if it isn't too much of an inconvenience," Kai bowed politely.

Mari was enveloped in a bundle of hugs from the team of squealing girls who dragged her to the make-shift studio-pancake in hand.

Within a few minutes (after finishing her pancake, of course), Mari was in full beauty rehabilitation. She sighed contentedly as one girl rubbed hot stones on her calves.

"Mari-chan?" another girl asked, producing a large stack of magazines. "Shields-san wants you to circle the clothes you like to get an idea of your current style, if you don't mind."

"What have you been doing to your hair?" Yoshioka interrupted, holding the lump of damaged hair in his hand. "It all has to go. It can't be helped."

Kai couldn't help but feel a little isolated by how distant Mari seemed in her world of beauty, and Yoshioka seemed to pick up on his budding reservation.

"Ladies," Yoshioka said to the girls. "Can you continue into the tanning and waxing stage with Mari? I'm going to step out with Kai-kun." He turned to Mari. "You said there was a patio upstairs, right? We'll be going there, now!"

And with that, he linked arms with Kai and practically dragged him away.

Yoshioka sighed deeply, taking in the fresh air.

"I can see why Mari chose this location," Yoshioka started, appreciating the rustling leaves of the trees below in the park. "She's always loved nature."

"If you don't mind me asking, how long have you known Mari-chan?" Kai asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.

Yoshioka smiled. "It's been nearly ten years now, hasn't it? I met Mari-chan when she first started out her career as just a little girl. And now look at where she has come."

He looked at Kai out of the corner of his eye while still facing the trees. "Mari-chan has had a difficult life leading up to this point. She was scouted from an early age, and her parents wanted the absolute best for her. She's always been one to push herself, so I was beginning to get worried that she would burn out before she could truly shine at her brightest."

"Of course," he said, looking down now. "The death of her father was a horrible thing that saddened us all, but I'm so pleased that she's been able to come back to our home country and gain some peace of mind through your friendship and her connection with the country itself."

Yoshioka smiled at Kai, and Kai smiled back, knowing it wasn't his story to tell about Mari's current friendship problems. They sat and talked about small other things for a time before one of the girls poked her head out into the patio, signaling that Mari's transformation was complete.

The light of morning was still soft in the living room; so, when Kai saw Mari first, he thought she was an otherworldly figure of shining, soft white light. Her skin was smooth and lightly tanned and barren of makeup, which drew more attention to the fact that she was not completely Japanese by descent. Her hair fell in light curls around her face and was cut to be short and fresh with bangs as soft as the light. Kai was mesmerized.

Yoshioka then brought out a case of a dozen glasses to Mari's delight. She scanned them all only cursorily before grabbing the iconic, dark grey walnut-shaped glasses that everyone knows she used to debut in her first photo shoot-the picture honestly had become iconic. Kai was struck again by his foolishness in not recognizing her from the beginning. She was undeniably Marumi-chan, the most popular model in the world.

* * *

The next few days passed in a flurry. Ms. Shields flew into Japan the following day having booked the first flight she could get over. After a big hug, Ms. Shields became instantly practical, opening her huge planner and laying out a series of business cards.

"So, first, we will obviously do Japan Vogue. It will be a great opportunity for you to breach further into this market before returning to the North American platform. We'll do the interview and shoot with Japan Vogue and then have it transcribed over for the English audiences in the main magazine."

"Um, don't you think it's a little pretentious to assume that Vogue will clear whatever issue they had upcoming for me?" Mari asked tentatively.

Ms. Shields' stared at Mari blankly before continuing like she hadn't even heard her. Kai felt a little useless fluttering between these two resisting the urge to defend Mari but also feeling afraid of this woman who definitely was only a few years older than him, considering the fact that he had repeated some years and taken a few years off after being bullied extensively in junior high.

"So, the clothes should be arriving any minute," Shields continued, flipping through her planner.

"Clothes?" Mari asked.

"What did you think those magazines were for this morning?" Shields asked impatiently. "They're coming for your shoot with Vogue."

"All of them?" Mari exclaimed. "But you haven't even called them yet to schedule the interview!"

Shields didn't even pay attention to Mari, turning to Yoshioka. "Did you make the list of four outfits for the shoot?"

"Already done," Yoshioka followed up quickly, handing Shields a clipboard no one even noticed he had had.

They high-fived and looked happily at Mari, who smiled cautiously back at the mad duo.

* * *

"Turn a little to the right. Ah, yes. Now smile! Jump and smile! Perfect!" the head photographer pulled back from his camera and motioned excitedly at Ms. Shields and Yoshioka-san. "It's like she never left the industry. She's perfect."

Ms. Shields smiled satisfyingly at Yoshioka-san, who returned her giddy expression. The shoot finished, Mari was ushered to the next studio where she was interviewed for the next hour. Kai stood in the shadows, watching her the whole time as she smiled and laughed and the sparkle in her eye grew brighter and brighter. He never felt so out of place as he listened to Mari talk about her decision to come back into the industry.

"It was really difficult at first," she said to the interviewer. "I found it very difficult to make friends, especially considering how I didn't want to be recognized for my face but for who I am as a person. I really wanted to give up for a while. I didn't know if I would ever make it back into this industry, until I met him."

Kai watched almost in slow motion as Mari lifted a finger and pointed directly at him.

"I became good friends with him, and since then I've never been better."

A moment of silence passed before the interviewer motioned an assistant to usher him over to the lighted area; but, upon seeing his panicked expression, Mari raised a hand.

"He doesn't need to be mentioned by name. I'd prefer to keep him my own friend. I'm selfish like that."

She laughed brightly, tactfully shifting the conversation away from him while Ms. Shields appeared to engage in a heated debate with the producer strong-arming him to leave Kai alone. He caught whispers of respecting Mari's wishes and the promise of exclusive coverage "should anything happen between them." He was lucky that the darkness hid his blush.

Soon enough, they were set to head home with the condition to lie low until the following Monday when Japan Vogue would be released. So, as it was, Mari and Kai were restricted to home confinement on Ms. Shields' orders. But with the order first passed down on Wednesday, by Saturday Mari was experiencing full-out cabin fever.

"Kai," Mari stressed, holding his shoulders to emphasize her point. "I need to get out of this apartment or I'm going to explode."

Kai sighed. "I suppose it can't be helped anymore." He walked up to his room, Mari trailing behind him, and shuffled through some of his clothes, producing a baggy outfit for Mari.

"Wear these at least to disguise yourself. We can sneak out into the park for a little walk but then we definitely have to come back."

Mari jumped in excitement and ran into the bathroom to change.

"You can wear my clothes if you want a disguise, too!" she called from the bathroom.

Kai scoffed. "Just hurry up before someone finds out we left!"

* * *

They walked in silence by the pond, yellow light from small lamps dotting just enough to give them an indication of the path moving forward.

"Kai?"

"Hmm?"

"Thank you," she looked down, unable to meet his eye.

"Hmm?" he prodded.

"For everything," Mari clarified. "I meant what I said in the interview. You've really saved me."

Kai was once again thankful that it was dark enough to hide his blush. Thoughts raced through his head. _This was it_ , he thought to himself. _His moment to confess his feelings..._

He turned to Mari and saw her pale expression. Tracing where she was looking he saw it-Yamato and Megu sitting at the only lighted bench in the vicinity. Megu had just said something funny and was leaning into Yamato's shoulder, and Yamato laughed. It was a genuine laugh, something that Mari hadn't heard from him in so long. She froze for a second, and Kai watched her revert back to the hardened shell that he saw only the week before when Megu's interview came out.

They walked back to the apartment in silence, and Kai couldn't help but sigh into the darkness of the sky above. He smiled bitterly.

Mari mumbled some version of good night and suddenly he was alone in the darkness of his room. Kai stared at the ceiling and sighed again. _Maybe it's time to give up_ , he thought to himself. _She's never going to look at me the way she looked at him. The best thing I could do for her is probably be helping those two get back together. How altruistic of me..._

Kai rolled over and resigned himself to his fate in uneasy sleep.

* * *

Class started in five minutes, and Yamato was racing down the sidewalk desperately trying to make it to class on time. Because his shoots were long and tiring, he regularly overslept his alarm and subsequently had received one too many late slips. As he wheeled around the last corner, he was shocked to find a thrashing mob of photographers. He raced through his recent shoots and determined that no scandal had arisen recently between him or Megu individually or together, so he approached with caution. No one even recognized him for the first few minutes. The school security guards had closed the gates off to the premises and were shouting at the paparazzi to step aside for students to get in. In short, it was a madhouse.

Just then, a reporter recognized him.

"Kurosawa-san!" the reporter yelled, thrusting a microphone into his chest. "What are your thoughts on the return of Marumi to the world, specifically here in Japan?"

Another reporter stacked a microphone on top of the first one. "Are you friends with Marumi here? Do you or Megu know her personally?"

"What are you talking about...?" Yamato asked, spotting Megu just at that moment inside the gate.

"Yamato!" Megu yelled, attempting to extend her hand forward to reach him only to have the security guards restrain her from the swarming paparazzi.

The noise escalated to an unprecedented level. But, suddenly, a luxury black car sped from around the corner and raced for the school gate, with paparazzi pushing each other frantically to get out of the way. The car cleared the paparazzi just enough for a team of ten security guards to leap out and create a small path from the car to the school gate. They motioned for the school security guards to open their gate just as the car door opened.

The school security guards shuffled Yamato and Megu along, but they turned their heads in tandem as they were ushered along to see who exactly had captivated so much interest.

"No way..." Megu gasped. "I thought she would never show her face again after what I said..."

But Yamato couldn't respond because he was rendered speechless as everything clicked together in his mind. He couldn't believe that he hadn't seen who she was in front of him all this time. Beside him, Megu was having a full-out tantrum, much to the displeasure of the security guards.

"She's ruined everything!" Megu yelled, punching the nearest guard. "She's going to snatch back everything that I've worked so hard to earn. She should have just continued on as that mousy little _rat_."

Yamato snapped out of his reverie at Megu's last comment. He looked at her in horror.

"You _knew_?"

Megu stopped, turning white realizing that she had just given away her position to Yamato.

"Um, that is-" she tried to start.

"You knew all this time and you didn't tell me?!" Yamato thundered, knocking aside her arm that tried to reach him. "How could you? Knowing how I feel-"

"Because I wanted you to love me instead!" Megu said rashly. "And I knew that she was too insecure about her true identity and revealing it to you so I took advantage of that! I'm sorry Yamato. Please forgive me!"

Yamato turned even whiter than he was before. His mind took him back to that one morning when his world was shattered.

"That's what she was upset about..." he said to himself, the revelations beginning to get more and more overwhelming. He looked up to the sky. "ARE YOU SERIOUS?!"

Megu stopped talking. In fact everyone in the school stopped talking because Mari had just walked inside. Yamato turned and they made eye contact for the first time in over a month. He huffed, breathing deeply as she got closer with her security guards. His insides clenched at how beautiful and confident she had become. She was perfect, and he was nothing.

She walked by him like she didn't even know him.

Yamato stared at her back as she turned the corner, and it felt like his world had shattered for a second time. He left without another word, running for shelter to the closest staircase he could find. At these times of the day, these side staircases were rarely used. Yamato shut the door silently behind him and leaned over the edge that overlooked the school's campus and sighed.

"I figured you would come here," Kai said from behind him.

Yamato jumped.

"Kai-kun..." Yamato whispered. Too many surprises had come for him today.

"I'm here to help," Kai said, ignoring the white elephant in the room of their past friendship unaddressed. "And I can tell you're going to need it."

"Help?" Yamato repeated.

"Yes," Kai responded, walking up closer to him. "With Mari."

Yamato froze. "How do you-"

"By fate, we've become rather close friends; and, even though I'm in love with her, I know she loves you so I want her to be happy."

Kai was never one for subtlety. He got right to the point immediately.

"I know you must feel guilty for what you did in junior high, so see working with me to get Mari back as a repayment for those times."

"It seems like a proposition vastly in my favor," Yamato said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"But I've always been the better one between the two of us, haven't I?" Kai smiled, and Yamato could see the truth behind his words-he truly did love Mari.

Yamato pulled back.

"Kai," he started. "I hate to say this, but I feel like you might be a better man for Mari. I want her so badly, but I've treated her so horribly. She doesn't deserve someone like me."

"No, she doesn't," Kai agreed. "But she still wants you. And she'll get what she wants after everything she's been through."

"You know about her dad?" Yamato asked.

"And more," he responded, filling Yamato in on the past month and a half.

Yamato paled. "I truly do not deserve her."

"I know," Kai agreed. "So, what are we going to do to get you two back together?"

* * *

Mari had come to school primarily as a publicity stunt (according to Ms. Shields) but really it was to see the look on Yamato's face. And was that a satisfactory look. She was practically purring walking out of the school for the last time in a while. It would be virtually impossible for her to continue schooling with the increased number of jobs she had, so she would have to finish her last semester at a later time. Her security guards began to bulk up again in preparation of the onslaught of paparazzi, but they had called in back-ups to clear the way outside of the gate in anticipation of more paparazzi. Helicopters buzzed overhead trying to catch a glimpse of her-it was all a little ridiculous, she thought.

"Mei-chan!"

She hadn't heard that name or that voice in a while. Mari turned and saw Asami running up to her, tears in her eyes, with Aiko following behind. Asami threw herself into Mari's arms, much to the alarm of the security guards until Mari cleared it.

"M-mei...Mari-chan," Asami corrected herself. "We're so...so... SO sorry!"

She cried into her arms. "We read the interview and now we understand everything! And Yamato feels horrible, too. We just don't know what we can do to make it up to you or for you to forgive us! But we've missed you so much, right Aiko?"

"Yeah," Aiko agreed in a rare moment of gentleness. She prodded Mari's arm. "We missed you. Can you forgive us?"

Mari stared at the two without knowing what to say.

"I..." she started, but stopped upon looking at Asami's teary-eyed expression once more. She sighed and relaxed. "I'm really busy these next few days, but I'll send a car to have you guys at my apartment next week so we can talk things over."

"That's the best we can do for now," Aiko said immediately to Asami before she could protest. Aiko looked at her once more. "Thank you."

Mari nodded, and then continued on her path toward the paparazzi. She stopped at the last minute.

"Where is Kai-kun?" she asked her head security guard.

The security guard pointed behind her. Mari turned and saw...Kai and Yamato walking out of the school together, laughing. She paled, and it seemed like the two boys sensed her change in aura as they both looked up at her simultaneously.

"We're leaving without him," Mari said coldly, leaving the two behind.

* * *

"Ms. Shields, I'm sorry," Mari apologized for the hundredth time watching her agent run around like a chicken with its head cut off while she was getting her makeup done for a Vanity Fair shoot.

"No, this is good honey," Ms. Shields reassured her for the hundredth time. "You know this is me in my element, and I've had a long break to prepare for this. Just make sure that you're thinking about those TV offers during this shoot so you have a decision on which one you want to do by the end of the day."

 _Ah, the TV offers_ , Mari thought. There were five different TV shows vying for her to take protagonist positions, and she had to choose only one to accommodate with the rest of her schedule.

"I know you said the second one would get the best ratings, but I have a good feeling about the fourth one," Mari said, shouting over the hair dryer. "I know the director is new, but that script seemed so fresh and real."

"You know I always trust you," Ms. Shields yelled back over the hair dryer. "I'll call them today and say you're on."

Mari waved her hand in acknowledgment and Ms. Shields left her to her thoughts. She hadn't returned any of Kai's calls or messages for the past few days, but honestly what did he expect to come from her seeing the two talk? He was supposed to be on _her_ side. She huffed and then forcibly cleared her mind so she could smile all Vanity Fair wanted.

* * *

For the first time since Monday, Mari finally was able to go home. After taking a few sneaky turns, Mari successfully evaded all of the paparazzi and got to her apartment. She walked out of the elevator into her flat and was surprised to see Kai already standing in the living room.

"Why are you here?" she blurted out rudely. "How did you know I would be here?"

"Yoshioka-san," Kai responded meekly, sorry to rat out his new friend. "I needed to talk to you."

Mari stared at him venomously.

"You've been avoiding my calls," Kai started.

Mari stared.

"And my messages," Kai added.

She stared more.

"Basically you've been ignoring my whole existence."

Mari sighed and took off her shoes.

"Kai, listen," she said, walking forward.

And then saw Yamato sitting on the floor in the hallway by the stairway.

She dropped her bag.

"Why," she started testily. "Is he here?"

"Ok, wait," Kai tried.

"No, Kai," Mari said, now furious. "Why would you bring him here, of all people, to MY house, when you know how busy I've been these past few days, when you KNOW what he did to me, when you KNOW what I've been through-"

"Ok, Mari, but really you should hear him out because-"

"There is objectively nothing that he can say to make anything he did better!" Mari shouted, flailing her hands.

"What possibly could he say to make any of this better?"

"I love you."

Yamato's soft voice cut through Kai and Mari's loud voices. They both stopped.

"What?" Mari stuttered, her anger deflated.

Yamato stood up and started walking slowly toward her.

"I love you," he repeated, stopping right in front of her.

The silence was so thick it could be cut.

Kai looked between the two and immediately bolted for the door.

"Ok bye sorry talk to you guys later!"

The elevator door chimed and shut.

The two stared at each other for a long time, re-memorizing the lines of each other's faces.

"Mari-" Yamato started, but she leaned back from his outstretched hand and stomped over to the sofa. She rested her head in her hands and tried not to cry.

He paused before walking over to the couch, hovering over her.

He stood there for a while, and Mari tensed wondering exactly what his next move would be.

She looked up when she heard shuffling. Yamato had gotten on his knees and was pressing his face into the ground in a full bow of apology.

"Mari," he said, forehead still pressed against the ground. "There are no words that I can say that will excuse my actions or make up for the horrible wrongs that I have done to you. There is nothing I can do or say to make up for what I did to you in the past. But it is the past, and I can promise that I will never hurt you like how I hurt you then again. I left that morning because I was weak and afraid that you had found someone better than me. In reality, it was never about me. It was about something far beyond me. I was selfish, and I have continued to be selfish time after time. I don't deserve you at all, and I never will because you will always be the better part of me. But I can't imagine a world where you _aren't_ a part of me." His voice started to crack. "Mari, I _need_ you with me. Without you, I have been nothing-"

"Nothing," Mari interrupted, her voice filled with tears. "What was nothing this past weekend when you were at the park with Megu? Is she not good enough for you?"

Yamato looked up from his pose. "This past weekend?" Recognition dawned on his face. "I laughed because she said something that reminded me of you. Remember when you were so flustered because you wanted to clean up your apartment when I came by?"

Mari nodded. Yamato laughed again. "It's really nothing great. I can't even remember what she said but it reminded me of that moment and I couldn't help but laugh." His laughter died out. "You were trying to make sure you hadn't left anything out that would give away your identity, weren't you?"

Mari bit her lip. "I wanted to tell you," she blurted out. "But I was afraid you would hate me or wouldn't trust me after I hid something from you for so long."

Yamato jolted up out of his bow, hands outstretched to the floor, staring at her with a wide expression. He pushed himself up immediately and pulled her into his arms, cradling her gently. Kai had had the same reaction, but somehow Yamato's embrace was solider, warmer...complete. Mari closed her eyes and allowed herself to forget everything for a moment except for Yamato's embrace.

The tears started to pour down her face and they soaked his shirt as she cried into him. And she was surprised when she heard his crying join in with hers. She looked up and saw Yamato, his hair falling into his reddened eyes and the red blush that warmed his cheeks from straining not to cry as best as he could. He choked and pulled her close to him again, running his hands from the top of her head down to her waist. He stroked her hair for a few minutes before picking her up and putting her back on the couch, resting her head on his lap. They stayed like that for the rest of the night, grieving for what they had lost with fear for what was to come.

* * *

 **I was starting to feel sad without any Mari/Yamato interaction, so ~~ouila~~ I managed this very sad but still meaningful reunion. Is this the start of a new relationship between the two? Or is there still a much longer path for the two to tread on before they are truly reunited? Please R &R to find out!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed with such kind words of encouragement. Here's the next development in the story! This story has continued on for longer than I thought it would, so I've gotten to a point where even I don't really know what's going to happen next. I hope you enjoy! As always, please rate and review :)**

* * *

 _Mari's ceiling...?_ It took Yamato a few seconds to remember that he was actually in Mari's apartment and it wasn't a dream. And in those seconds he also remembered the events of the night prior with a wince. He stretched on the sofa and then realized that Mari was nowhere to be seen. He popped his head and looked over into the dining room and the kitchen-no sight to be seen of Mari. A trickle of anxiety began to crawl down Yamato's back-the same anxiety he had felt these past weeks without Mari-and he leaped up and began climbing the stairs in sets of two. He checked in both bedrooms: no one. Right when his heart rate was starting to speed up, he noticed the patio glass door was slightly ajar. He slowed at the door and peered out.

It was a balmy yet overcast sort of morning, almost like how the beach feels at sunrise. Despite it all, the morning wind carried the searing cool scent of a promise of changing seasons. Just then, Mari stretched her arms out wide. The wind made Mari into a sort of puppet, drafts lifting tendrils of her hair and loose, monochromatic clothing in an ethereal manner. She laughed quietly, and that laughter sounded to Yamato like bells chiming down from the sky above. _Like an angel..._ Yamato thought to himself, completely still so as not to break her from her reverie.

And then, as the wind died down, Mari began to sing softly.

"Somewhere...over the rainbow..."

Yamato felt his insides clench. He had never heard Mari sing before, and her notes were so pure and beautifully wavering, as if they might tremble and disappear if the wind picked up too strongly again. It was then that he realized there were so many things about Mari that he probably didn't know, and then there were so many things that he knew about Marumi the character but wasn't sure if those things were true of the Mari he knew, or thought he knew. This would prove to be more complicated than he would have wanted. Yamato leaned forward instinctively to hear more but his weight accidentally pushed the glass door aside, and the shuffling was enough noise to startle Mari. The singing abruptly cut off like a bird being stuffed into a cage, and she immediately tightened her clothes against her skin, treating the wind that had just been her friend as now her enemy. Yamato watched as the depth in Mari's eyes quickly retreated deep back into her soul.

She was shut off to him.

"You frightened me!" Mari said gruffly, her voice nothing resembling the sweetness he had just heard.

"I'm sorry," Yamato replied, deciding not to address what he had seen so that the spell of it couldn't be broken. "I just woke up and you weren't there..."

Although she had been avoiding eye contact with him, Mari peeked up just at that moment only to blush and look the other way.

"I see..." Mari supplied to the otherwise silent patio.

"Um..." Yamato started, grappling desperately for something to say. "So, you have the day off today?"

Just then, her phone rang, and Mari jumped in sudden realization that she was late for her first day at the new TV drama set. She looked down and realized her phone had been on a manual Do Not Disturb mode that had just come off of its time constraints. 24 missed calls from Ms. Shields. She was dead.

"I'm sorry I have to go now-"

Yamato caught her by the hand and pulled her roughly back into his arms.

"When can I see you again?" he said with a low voice.

"Um, I have a weekend break in two weeks after I finish this brief feature in a TV drama," Mari said, dazed a little by their proximity.

They stood there in that intimate embrace for what felt like an eternity. He leaned in and whispered in Mari's ear, "I'll be waiting...until then."

With a whoosh, he walked out past her further onto the patio. Mari faltered, wondering if she should ask him to leave, but thought better of it because she was already running so late.

* * *

"Two...hours..." Those were the first words Ms. Shields hissed to Mari as they walked hurriedly to the set location. "You are two hours late! And to the first day, no less. Is this the first impression you want to give these people after your second debut?"

"And that's about it for introductions!" the director called, clapping.

"Ah!" he noticed Mari then. "And last but not least, our new featured guest, Marumi. She'll be acting as a student from another school as a rival character for Toma-san's Takeru character. Nice to meet you."

Mari bowed very low. "My sincerest apologies for arriving late! I promise to be on time each day moving forward! Nice to meet you!"

The director and producer and other staff fawned over her immediately, just imagining their ratings going skyward with her sudden addition to the already popular program.

"And this is Toma-san," the head casting director said after introducing Mari to many other kind-spoken people with whom she would act. "Your rivalry will be the center of these next two episodes, but most of your scenes will be separate until the ending showdown."

Mari bowed again apologizing for her tardiness as she had for the dozens of people who had come before, but this time she didn't get an immediate request to stand back up. Instead, she was forced to bow for an awkward minute while Toma stood over her.

"Hmm," he said apathetically, looking down on the back of her head. "You don't even sound sorry."

Mari clenched her teeth and squinted to hold back her anger while she continued to bow. "Honestly, I'm very sorry and it won't happen again."

Toma sighed and put his hands in his pockets, brushing by her as he walked away. "Whatever you say, shortie."

There was a brief silence before the casting director began issuing a series of apologies, but Mari just kept her winning smile on as she watched Toma's retreating figure. _Oh, you can bring it on, Toma-san._

* * *

As the director said, Mari and Toma had only a few fleeting scenes for the first week, chance encounters of mostly just insults being tossed around. Mari quickly adjusted to her cast at the rival school, and they got along very nicely even going to izakayas together after work. But even in the midst of their laughter, Mari couldn't shake her thoughts from the sullen and standoffish Toma. Even in her disguise, Mari was able to put on her Marumi act and charm whomever she wanted, whenever she wanted. To be at the height of her looks and power and get nothing from this Toma guy was really frustrating, to say the least. But every time she thought too hard about it, she would pull back, admonishing herself for caring at all in the first place.

It didn't help that, after a week and a half of brutal hours and complete exhaustion, the two of them had to spend full days together filming the final confrontation scene, in which Toma gets the better hand of Mari's group in an academic showdown. When the final cut was drawn, the director and producer jumped up and down excitedly.

"The chemistry between you two is unreal," the director declared. "It's like you really actually hate each other. I wouldn't be surprised if the ratings for these two episodes skyrocketed."

"Marumi-san," the producer said, sidling up to her side. "Are you sure you wouldn't reconsider staying on set for a few more weeks? I'm sure the writers could easily come up with a way to make you a regular on the show."

"Oh, thank you for your kind words! I'll have to check with my agent and then get back to you," Mari said with her classic smile. She caught Toma rolling his eyes at her, and it was then that she decided to follow him. She trailed him to his prep room where he was evidently picking up his bag of things when she pushed the door open to signal her arrival.

He looked up only briefly before turning back to gather the rest of his papers.

"What?"

Mari breathed in deeply and then put on her most winning smile.

"Um, I'm sorry if this is sudden and mistaken, but I couldn't help but feel these past few days that you're very cold toward me. I like to maintain good relationships with my fellow actors, and I was just wondering if there was something I did wrong along the way, other than being late the first day, for which I apologize still."

She kicked herself mentally for talking so much.

Toma paused, seemingly scanning a piece of paper before crumpling it and tossing it in the trash. "Nothing much."

It was Mari's turn to roll her eyes now. She marched into the room and grabbed the papers from his hands and shook them irritatingly in his face.

"What's your problem, huh?" Mari said bluntly, unconsciously switching to casual speech.

He raised an eyebrow at her, which was the first indication of any reaction she'd been able to elicit from him. It was then that she realized she had spoken so informally so she tried backtracking.

"Um, that is, it's very important to me to have good relationships with my fellow actors, so your opinion of me does determine at least in part whether I continue with this program!" Mari stuttered.

Toma wordlessly took the papers back from her and dropped them in his bag. He tossed the messenger bag over his back and started walking out of the room. Mari opened her mouth to protest but stopped when he stopped at the doorframe.

"You're fake," he said, still facing away from her. "I despise when people are fake."

Mari didn't respond, so he walked out, leaving her in silence.

* * *

Mari couldn't help but feel overwhelmed on the drive over to Yamato's place. She'd promised to come over to his house once she wrapped up set at the end of the two weeks, but right now all she wanted was to be back in her apartment. She'd just completed two very strenuous weeks of acting, had had that coarse interaction with Toma, realized she hadn't spoken to Kai in two weeks and now felt scared to try to approach him, and also simultaneously realized that now she would have to confront Yamato about their situation since she'd finished this gig... _Maybe_ finished this gig. She had yet to call Ms. Shields to see if they should continue, which would probably depend on the ratings, and whatever other jobs Ms. Shields had found for her... Mari pinched the bridge of her nose and took a deep breath. _First, a nice warm bath and silence_ , she thought as she physically pulled her body up the stairs.

But right when she opened the door to his apartment, the lights flicked on of their own accord and half a dozen people jumped out from the living room.

"Congrats on finishing your show, Mari-chan!" they all yelled.

Everyone was there-Asami, Aiko, Yoshioka, Ms. Shields, Kai, and Yamato. Asami came forward first, giving her a big hug while Aiko presented her with a small cake. Next came Kai, who wordlessly gave her a big hug, too, and Mari felt tears come to her eyes as their friendship mended so easily just through that hug. He pulled back and they shared a peaceful expression. _Sorry_ , she mouthed at him, and he smiled back. _Calm and friendly, dependable bear Kai-kun_ , Mari thought to herself, smiling. A bouquet of flowers brushed under her nose. A light tinge of pink coated the tops of Yamato's cheeks.

"Congratulations," he said quietly, unable to meet her expression fully.

Mari's smile widened, and she tentatively reached a hand forward to hold onto the side of his shirt gently. He looked up and they shared a fleeting moment of eye contact before Mari got whisked away by Asami again to give her a tour of the apartment.

The night was wonderful. Even despite how exhausted Mari was, she felt calm like she hadn't before in a long time, content in the middle of these people she called her close friends. Finally, some time around 5AM, Kai rallied the troops to shepherd them out of the apartment, and then there was just Yamato and Mari.

At this point, Mari was so exhausted that she was having difficulties standing up. The weight of the past two weeks and her anxieties stuck to her shoulders like iron. She didn't want to have this conversation with Yamato, but she knew she had to tell him about the possibility of being stuck on the TV program for the next two months.

"Want to sleep now?" he said lightly, trying to diffuse the otherwise awkward situation as best he could, resting his arms on the sides of her arms.

"Mmm..." Mari hummed, trying to organize her thoughts but fighting extreme exhaustion.

"I'll probably..." She yawned mid-sentence. "Have to continue working on this TV show for a while longer."

"Eh?"

She froze, realizing that she had spoken her thoughts out loud. _Well, this wasn't how I wanted to break the news_.

"For how long?"

Mari shuffled in place, feeling uneasy. "Like...two months or so?"

Yamato was silent; and, for the second time, he pulled away from Mari.

Dully, Mari felt a rip of sadness as he took a step backward, away from her.

"You're upset," she said matter-of-factly, putting a hand up to her face to try to stop the headache once more. "Ok, whatever, I'll just go home."

She turned, reaching for her bag, when Yamato snapped.

"Do you not care at all?" he demanded, raising his voice to a level she hadn't heard before.

In any other situation, this would have shocked Mari, but she was so physically spent that she just rose an eyebrow at him, smearing mascara across her eyes that were watery not from frustration but sleep deprivation.

"Um..." she started. "Sorry, I'm just really, really tired now. Can we have this conversation tomorrow? It's obvious you're really upset and there's nothing I can do about it right now."

Yamato stared at her, fury escalating greater and greater in his eyes. He marched up to her and slammed the wall right next to her head.

"Two weeks of nothing and then I put this whole party on for you only for you to tell me you're going to continue for another TWO MONTHS?" he shouted. "What about us? What about working on our relationship to make it better? Don't you care?"

Mari stared at him blankly.

"Listen," she started. "I've been getting like three hours of sleep every day for the past two weeks. That's why I'm so out of it right now. I only have tomorrow and the following day to catch up on my sleep. I'm sorry you're upset right now, but my work has to take first priority until I establish myself back in the industry. Everyone else seems to understand this except for you."

"That's because you're not dating everyone else!"

"Are we dating?" Mari asked slowly. "You threw me to the curb and left me to deal with cancer by myself and then just happened to waltz back into my life when you found out I was famous. Yes, I still have feelings for you, but I'm not stupid. I went through a rough period after my dad died and that made me more dependent and sad than I usually am, but this is the real me. This is the me that I was before everything happened. Work has to be most important. It's what keeps me going."

Yamato stared back sadly. "I can't be what keeps you going?"

Mari scoffed. "A relationship should be a complementary and not supplementary situation. I shouldn't have to depend on you like how I did before. That's why it was an unhealthy relationship. Well, at least one of the reasons. Would I like to see more of you the next couple of months? Yeah. I'm sure now that I'm used to the cast and am a regular my scenes won't be as hectic so I'll have more time to do things like sleep and eat and maybe even hang out with you here and there, but I'm going to want to hang out with other people too like the people in my cast, Asami and Aiko, Kai-kun, my other friends in the industry. I'll make more time for you because you're important to me, but honestly it would be unhealthy if I wanted to spend all my time with you."

"Oh, well thank you for being so considerate as to want to make time for me," Yamato said sarcastically. "I get that healthy relationships don't require as much attention, but we're coming from a situation where we _weren't_ healthy and now I'm trying to put in effort to make things better and you just aren't. If you can't spend the base amount of time talking through issues and resolving things then we'll always stay like this where we don't trust each other."

"Well I don't trust you!" Mari said, her voice finally rising to Yamato's level. "How could I trust you after what you did to me? That's not something that just goes away in one night!"

"But if we could talk it out-"

"No," Mari said firmly. "I need more time to myself before I can start to trust you again. I didn't want to have to say it so plainly to your face, but you've left me no other choice. I need time to find myself again before I can start to try to trust you again. It would be foolish and immature for me to jump back into a relationship with someone who I can't trust because then I'd want to dedicate that so-called time that you were talking about to developing the relationship. But there are opportunity costs, namely my job. I'm not going to put my eggs in one basket. There is more to life than you, Yamato."

While Mari had been speaking, Yamato had been advancing at a slow, incremental pace with a darkened look in his eyes. Suddenly, he grabbed both of Mari's arms and held them above her head and pushed himself forcefully against her, allowing her to feel all of him.

"There's more to life than this? Us?" he said gruffly, thrusting himself against her pointedly.

Mari let out an involuntary sigh. Her vision was starting to get blurry-she almost felt drunk with exhaustion. Her head rolled back against the wall, and Yamato took the opportunity to press his lips against hers angrily. Mari could barely keep up with his kisses, his hands trailing and touching the small of her back, her chest, bringing her legs up to wrap around his waist... He tugged at her shirt, and the sound of cotton ripping jolted her temporarily back to reality. She unhooked her legs and used her knees to shove Yamato away forcefully. She swayed, feet unsteadily hitting the ground, and Yamato used her imbalance to his advance, pushing her up against the wall once more, biting her lip to grant access to her mouth.

"Stop!" Mari said, ducking underneath his arms and walking with purpose to the door. He grabbed her hand at the last second and pulled her in closely to his chest.

"Please...don't go..." he said weakly.

Mari pushed him away without a second thought, grabbed her purse, and bolted without shutting the door or looking behind her.

* * *

She walked down the dark sidewalk toward the train station for a few minutes before she realized that the trains wouldn't start back up for another thirty minutes. She pulled her hoodie overhead, praying that no paparazzi would see her and snap any photos; otherwise Ms. Shields might kill her.

There was only one man waiting at the train station, and there was only ten minutes left until the first train would arrive.

By appearance, the man seemed to be a drunk salaryman who had went home with someone and was now foolishly trying to head home so that he would make it to work on time the following day.

"Heyyyy there," the man said, immediately noticing her sitting a few spots down. "What's your name?"

Mari ignored him, resting her head against the wall in hopes that he would leave her alone. There was a silence for a few minutes, but then a weight crashed down next to her.

"What's your name? Huh? Where are you from?"

Mari felt a burst of adrenaline spike her almost dead-exhausted body. In a final stand, Mari jumped to her feet and shouted. "What do you thinking you're doing? Get your filthy hands off of me."

Right when the man started to grab at her, the train whooshed in, and suddenly the weight of the man was flung violently off of her.

"What do you think you're doing, asshole?" a familiar voice said.

Mari looked up through her hoodie just on time to see Toma punch the salaryman squarely in the face. He was wearing the regular celebrity disguise; so, if she hadn't heard his voice first she might not have recognized him.

"Are you okay?" he said, extending a hand to her.

Mari looked up at the hand, and Toma caught just enough of a glimpse of her face under the hoodie to pull his hand back sharply.

"What are you doing here?" he said confusedly.

Mari started to open her mouth to respond; but, just at that moment, everything became horribly dizzy and then black.

* * *

Mari woke in her own apartment the next afternoon wondering how she had ended up there. There was a cold noodle soup bowl sitting next to her bed and a small note.

"Maruyama-san, You passed out yesterday at the train station, so I used your phone to call Ms. Shields and figure out where you lived. Eat the soup when you wake up, and then get some more sleep so you don't pass out again like that. See you on Monday, Toma. P.S. You really need to work on your punch."

Mari smiled lightly at the note, feeling incredibly touched that Toma would go out of his way to help her like that. _See you on Monday_... I guess that means he wouldn't hate it if I continued on the program. Mari smiled wider. It seemed like she'd finally found a proper rival.

* * *

 **That's it for this time! Please rate/review for more!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello again! Life has been busy, but here's another chapter-finally! These past few chapters have all been about introducing new characters and setting the scene for the big showdown, so I hope you'll be patient and know that, in the end, our favorite pairing will win out! ...Or will they? :)**

* * *

"Honestly, we couldn't be more pleased to have Marumi as a regular on our program-" the producer was gushing to Ms. Shields right after their morning briefing bright and early on Monday. "This arc segways very nicely into at least three episodes of in-depth analysis on the characters from Marumi's rival school troupe. If she can stay on as a regular for the rest of the season, I don't see why she couldn't continue into the next season..."

"Ah yes, well, we'll see when the licensing for the third season comes around, won't we?" Ms. Shields purred demurely, mentally checking off Marumi's latest drama offers.

Meanwhile, Marumi was getting the full scolding from Yoshioka about the state of her face.

"Honestly, Mari-chan, it looks like you didn't get nearly as much sleep as you should have this weekend. It was your big break to take advantage of catching up on sleep, you know," Yoshioka lectured.

"Yes, yes," Mari mumbled.

After she drank the soup Toma had left behind, the previous night's details came flooding back, and Mari spent the rest of the weekend cooped up in her apartment memorizing lines for the drama basically in denial that she needed to deal with Yamato-there simply wasn't enough time to think of those things.

"This week will be a little easy for you since the screenwriters didn't know that you were going to sign on as a regular and needed a bit of time to patch back in a reason for you to show up again so quickly, but don't take this time for granted. Try to get as much sleep as you can this week, ok?" Yoshioka sounded concerned now, which only made Mari feel worse.

"I'm sorry, Yoshioka-san..." Mari offered, trying not to sound as helpless as she felt.

Yoshioka patted her head lightly. "It's okay, Mari-chan. I've arranged a surprise for you at your apartment after you get off of work today, so look forward to it, ok?"

"A surprise?" Mari asked, tilting her head in thought.

Yoshioka smiled at her cute, quizzical expression. When she was tired, Mari unconsciously reverted to childlike tendencies. He ruffled her hair once more; and, even though Mari complained to have her hair messed up like that right before a shoot, he caught her smile underneath it all.

"Please be ready for standby!" an assistant director called into her prep room.

"Yes!" Mari and Yoshioka said in tandem.

"Off you go," Yoshioka said gently. He did worry about that girl.

 _The girl who has the weight of the world on her shoulders, it would seem..._ Yoshioka sighed while he packed up his supplies.

* * *

Eight hours later, Mari lugged her belongings into the car (a limo transportation service provided courtesy of the director and producer) despite the invitation of assistance from the driver.

"Nah, nah," Mari said in casual speech, waving away the man's kind gesture. "If I can't do this for myself, what good am I? Hah?"

"Hah?" a voice from behind mimicked her.

 _Dammit!_ Mari thought to herself. _I gotta learn to be on my A-game 24/7 on location otherwise this guy is going to figure me out..._ She sighed and turned to meet Toma's smug expression.

"Oh! I'm sorry. Was there something you needed?" Mari said in her usual, sweeter than sweet voice.

"Yeah, you forgot your copy of next week's script." He waved the script in front of her tantalizingly.

No longer amused, it was all Mari could do to keep the smile plastered on her face while she "patiently" waited for Toma to get bored and hand over her script. _This is exactly the situation for why I learned to act in the first place..._ Mari thought, gritting her teeth into an even more grounded smile.

After a few minutes of messing around, Toma rolled his eyes and handed the script over, just as Mari predicted.

"Thanks so much!" Mari said brightly, slamming the door to the limo.

* * *

"That guy is so troublesome..." Mari was musing as she exited the elevator to her apartment.

"Eh?"

Smells of delicious food drafted through her apartment, and Mari kicked off her shoes quickly wheeling into the kitchen, only to find Kai cooking up a savory meal in her kitchen.

"Kai-kun!" Mari shouted in glee, forgetting the awkward fact that they hadn't actually completely talked out and reset their friendship yet.

Kai laughed at Mari's unabashed happiness and gestured for her to come over with the spatula.

"I'm making your favorite oyako-don," he said confidentially.

"Of course, I could smell it right when I walked out of the elevator," Mari said happily, plopping herself on the high-rise stool across the marble counter from where Kai was cooking. It was just like old times. _Old times..._ Mari's smile drooped, suddenly feeling sad that they couldn't do things like that anymore.

"Hey hey now," Kai said, interrupting her sad train of thought. "No sad faces when I'm cooking your favorite food, all right?"

Mari smiled in spite of herself.

"Yes, yes!" she cheered, resting her face in her palms while she watched Kai cook.

He really did have a knack for cooking, which is probably how he got that job at her bakery. Well, other than the fact that her boss was smitten by his face, of course.

She tilted her head and tried to look at Kai like how any other woman would look at him. A chiseled face, but not too chiseled. Good skin, pretty eyes, long eyelashes, a sense of style coupled with a sense of humor and humility. Kai really did have it all, didn't he...

Kai fidgeted. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

Mari jumped. "Oh, sorry. I was just thinking about you."

"About me?" Kai said lightly, dropping an egg into the frying pan.

"Mmm.." Mari said noncommittally. "I missed you."

"I missed you too," Kai responded immediately. "It was nice to see you at the party last Saturday, but we didn't really get to hang out one-on-one, right?"

"That's right," Mari agreed. "And I wanted to, but I didn't know how because I figured you might be mad at me?"

"Mad at you?"

"Yeah, because I was mad at you."

Kai tilted his head. "You thought I would be mad at you because you were mad at me?"

"Yeah?" Mari half-said half-asked. "Because I was wrong to be mad at you."

"About me trying to help you with Yamato-kun, right?" Kai supplied.

Mari tensed. "It seems he has not yet told you about our little altercation after you all left, huh?"

"He did," Kai said, his voice purposefully remaining light.

"Then you know it's probably better for us to avoid that topic," Mari added.

"Mm..." Kai agreed without really agreeing, and they fell into silence.

"It's just-" they both said at the same time.

"You go," he gestured.

"I feel like Yamato is a big part of your life, but I also hope that I'm a big part of your life. And I don't want you to feel like you should be dragged between the two of us in this fight. And I know that you want to be there for him because he's your friend, but also it hurts me because I feel like that means you have to pick a side or something. And I don't feel comfortable talking to you about him because I feel like as his friend you would have to tell him what I say to you, but I also don't want not to be able to talk to you about it because you're _my_ friend, too..."

Kai slid the oyako-don into place while carefully listening to Mari's rambles.

"I agree with everything you said," he said after a moment of processing. "So we just can't talk about it."

They looked at each other sadly.

"For the sake of our friendship," Kai said. "We'll have to keep this distance for now until you guys can sort things out. It's the same with my friendship with him, as well."

"But I don't really feel like it's the same with your friendship with Yamato," Mari argued. "From the beginning, I feel like you've taken more of an interest in his side of things."

"That's because you won't let me in to your side of things," Kai said slowly, trying to explain the convoluted logic they were circling around.

"Because I feel like you'll tell him," Mari said.

"Yeah, but Yamato doesn't worry about those sort of things because he's not as layered as you," Kai reasoned.

"Hmm.." They both sat in silence again.

"Ok!" Mari clapped her hands. "Let's talk about something else."

"Mm," Kai agreed, and so they buried that kernel of conflict for the time being.

"How do you like your fellow cast members?"

"Mmm..." Mari sighed. "Most of them are okay, but there's this one guy..."

"Hmmmm?" Kai asked, leaning forward.

"No, it's not like that!" Mari said quickly, waving her hands away from Kai's instant speculations. "He just got a bad first impression from me in the beginning, and now I feel like he only sees me when I'm not on my A-game."

"A-game?" Kai asked.

"Hmm..." Mari sighed, backtracking. She hadn't really shown Kai _that_ side of her yet, so maybe it would be better to save this one for her own thoughts.

"When I'm tired or hungry," Mari opted to explain.

Kai nodded. "Well, I'm sure you'll find a way to wiggle into his heart. That's how it works for everyone, right?"

Mari frowned pensively, unaware of Kai's close monitoring. "Anyway-" and the subject was dropped, for then.

* * *

After the first "light" week of filming, Mari fell into a routine: Wake up at 6AM, work all day, fall asleep at midnight, repeat. On the few days that she got out a few hours early, she'd try her best to resist the temptation to sleep and would instead call Aiko and Asami to catch up. Kai had taken to sleeping over at her apartment on the weekend, which was great because he would cook her light snacks for when she got home after filming and she got to see her best friend regularly. Other than the fact that she hadn't addressed the issue with Yamato (which strained her friendship with Kai a bit), things couldn't be going better.

Three weeks into filming, Mari _finally_ got a break-two full days, to be exact. The minute she got out of work, Mari disguised herself before hitting the konbini (convenience store) close to her apartment.

"Hehehehe..." Mari chuckled to herself, indulging in all of the sweets and drinks that Ms. Shields and Yoshioka would scream if they saw.

She hurried into her apartment before anyone could recognize her and breathed in a deep sigh of relief. _Finally, she could relax._ In lightning speed, Mari kicked off her shoes, dumped the konbini bags on the sofa, and ran upstairs. Nothing was more satisfying than kicking off her restrictively cute "Marumi" fashion for bunny slippers, an oversize t-shirt, duck-patterned boxers, and fuzzy socks. Wheeling into the bathroom, Mari gleefully peeled her makeup off in exchange for a sticky facial mask, over which she balanced her glasses (which were so much comfier than contact lenses, really), and pulled her hair up into two, high ponytails. This was zen.

Thirty seconds later, she carried her stock of stuffed animals (which had been tastefully hidden in her walk-in closet) and assorted blankets downstairs and set up a fort as her viewing platform for an American gangster movie she'd been dying to watch. She popped a beer open and began shoveling cheese sticks in her mouth. Mari was the epitome of an unladylike and un-Marumi-like character.

"Whattaya think ya doing, hah? Shoot 'em up!" Mari yelled at the TV.

An hour into her movie marathon, Mari had proudly constructed a lovely pyramid of beer cans (six, to be exact) on the coffee table. This was the first time Mari had returned to her "American roots," as it were, and had a full out Netflix binge session. Although her alcohol tolerance had been impeccable back in America, she could feel the effects of the beers beginning to stack up way sooner than normal as a result of her lack of sleep and lack of drinking as of late.

"Pizza..." Mari said to herself. "I need...a pizza..."

She stared at the screen, watching the underdog gangster show up the boss.

"How can I get a pizza..." Mari continued to speak to herself, accidentally pressing her cheesy-powdered finger to her nose in contemplation, "Without someone recognizing me?"

She leaned over, catching her reflection in the opaque and now darkened glass overlooking the park.

"Haaaaa there's no way anyone would recognize me like this!"

Decision made, Mari excitedly put in her order online. Movie almost completely forgotten now, Mari was enraptured by the process bar that showed her pizza being cooked.

"Come to mama..."

Although the percentage bar was still only at 90%, she heard the phone chime with the ringtone designated for individuals requesting access to the elevator.

"Haaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiii," Mari yelled, impulsively throwing a deer plushie hat on her head-What, she's disguising herself- before leaping to the phone and clicking the access button. The elevator door opened as Mari was walking back to the TV.

"Yayayayyay ya can put it right here on the coffee table," she said without looking backward.

She was then reminded of her impressive beer can structure and impulsively decided to show it off to her pizza deliverer.

"Look at this stuff! Isn't it neat?!" Mari began to sing. "Wouldn't you say my collection's complet-WHOA-"

The person who walked out of the elevator was not the pizza deliverer. It was Toma. With her planner that she had clearly dropped earlier that day.

Mari dropped the cheese stick in her hand, and all that could be heard was the sound of gunshots coming from the TV.

She was standing. In her living room. Wearing a bunny shirt so big it didn't look like she was wearing pants. Drunk off her ass. With a face mask and glasses. And a deer plushie hat. She was done.

Breathing in deeply, Mari took one step at a time. She slowly turned and hit the pause button on the TV and placed the deer plushie hat on the sofa. Without saying anything, she brushed past Toma and peeled the face mask off with cool water, opting to leave her glasses by the sink even though she couldn't see farther than a foot away without them. Tucking her shirt into her pants (because there were, indeed, pants), she slowly walked back to where she had been originally standing and, without breaking eye contact, she leaned down and picked up the cheese stick she had dropped, and slowly began chewing on it, all while staring at Toma. All in all, she seemed pretty sober in that moment. Until the doorbell rang again, at which time Mari dropped all pretenses and ran to hit the access granted button in the kitchen.

"Get the pizza ~~" she hissed at Toma, hiding in the kitchen.

"W-what?" It was the first thing Toma had said during this whole interaction.

"The pizzaaaaaaa," Mari hissed in vain, gesturing widely at the door. "I was disguised, but now I'm not. So you have to get it!"

"What. Ok. Hold on a second. You're seriously asking me to get your pizza?"

The elevator door opened just then and a middle-aged man took a step into the apartment.

"Pizza for Tachibana Mei-san."

Toma sighed deeply before turning to the man. "Haaaaai, I'll take it for her. She just ran to the bathroom."

"Ok, $28.67 is your total."

Toma glanced over at Mari, who then jumped a little before continue to gesture violently at him to pay. _Honestly?_ Nevertheless, he took out his wallet and paid the man.

The elevator door had barely shut when suddenly the weight of the pizza boxes disappeared from his hands and what seemed to be a small creature was scuttling back over to the TV with the goods. The TV resumed its gunfire and yelling, and all Toma could see was the back of the deer plushie hat firmly back on Mari's head. He slowly walked over to the couch where Mari was now guzzling what he ascertained to be her seventh beer.

"Did you drink all of those beers?"

"..."

"And you're still able to perform basic functions?"

"..."

"Are you just going to pretend like I'm not here?" he said amusedly.

Mari pointed at herself slowly. " _Half_ -Japanese, half-USA. USA"

She began chanting "USA" ritualistically much to Toma's confusion.

Mari ripped a bite of pizza and chewed voraciously, bobbing her head in agreement. "If I pretend like you're not there then you'll really disappear and I won't be scarred by this."

" _You_ won't be scarred by this? What about me?"

"But you don't exist because I can't see you."

Toma walked in front of the screen.

"Hey!" Mari yelled, flinging pizza crust at Toma's face.

"What the hell!" Toma said, wiping the garlic sauce from his cheek.

"Can I have that back?" Mari said pensively, eyeing off the garlic crust he'd caught in his hand. "It's too good to waste."

Never breaking eye contact, Toma ate the garlic crust in two bites.

Mari's eyes widened before screeching and launching herself at him.

"But whyyyyyyyyyy?" she anguished, shaking his shoulders. "Why would you do that?"

"Jesus, calm down, Mari-chan," Toma said, whisking Mari from under her feet and carrying her back to the sofa. "Ok, we'll have it your way and pretend like I'm not here, but in return I want some of this pizza."

"You're going to stay?" Mari said quizzically, pushing her drooping glasses up.

He pointed at the TV. "I like this movie."

Mari gaped. "You've seen it? It's in English!"

"I can speak English," Toma said in English. "I learned at university."

"You went to university?" Mari gaped again.

"Keio," Toma said nonchalantly, picking a pepperoni slice.

"Keio?!" Mari whined, her mouth dropping.

She stared at Toma like he was an alien, but he remained nonchalant, opting to eat another slice of pizza in lieu of making eye contact. Before Mari could think too much into his character, she felt her second wave of intoxication rolling to its peak and decided to just hand him a beer and pretend like nothing strange had happened in her apartment the past thirty minutes.

* * *

Forty minutes later the gangster marathon was still going on and Mari was now completely drunk. Toma had allowed himself four beers-"Because that's the level I need to tolerate your behavior"- and he was already starting to feel a little loopy from the effects.

"Ne, ne, Toma-chan," Mari said excitedly, hopping on his shoulder.

"Baaaaaakka, Toma-chan ja nai yo," [**] Toma barked irritably. "Don't you know how to address your elders properly?"

Mari pouted. "Yeah, yeah, Keio University wooowwwww."

"Shut up, ugly," Toma muttered, swatting her too-close face away.

Mari's pout deepened. "Who are you calling ugly?!" She pressed her hands against her face, highlighting her already prominent features further. "I'm great."

Toma chuckled at her amusedly, subtly using his right hand to balance his woozy sense of equilibrium with the couch's arm.

There was a brief pause in which Mari smiled at Toma and Toma chuckled back against his better judgment. And then Mari's smile visibly dropped. Toma raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything. She retreated to the other side of the couch and pulled her legs up to her chest, frowning blankly at the blackened glass wall. After a minute or two, Toma sighed deeply and caved.

"What?"

Mari jumped a little at his voice, almost as if she'd forgotten he was there.

"Eh?"

"What's wrong?"

"Uh..nothing much."

"Liar."

Mari sighed. "It's sort of personal..."

Toma sighed. "Don't you think you've lost the right to keep anything personal from me anymore?"

"Hmm..." Mari said, unconsciously agreeing before she put two and two together of what Toma had actually just said. "Eh?!"

"I mean," Toma said defensively. "Look at you. Would you take the deer hat off so I can take you seriously?"

Mari stuck her tongue out at Toma, and he pointed at it. "See? All of your secrets are mine now."

Mari's spirit, although raised temporarily in spite of her emotions, dampened again.

"Some of my secrets I would prefer you not to know, though," she said quietly, and Toma was struck by how sad she had become even in these few moments.

"Ok, well tell me what's bothering you the most right now, then," Toma said, trying to ease her into feeling better. For some reason, her gloomy expression really unsettled him. Seeing this version of Mari was even more shocking than seeing her slobbish home self.

"...I suppose if you insist...I'm having troubles with my boyfriend."

"Boyfriend?"

"Well, we were dating back when I was disguised and he didn't know who I really was, but then he broke up with me at a time when I was at my worst. And now he wants to come back into my life, conveniently at a time when I'm at my best and my identity has been revealed. It's just difficult for me to trust him now."

"Hmm..." Toma said, mulling it over. "Well, from a guy's perspective, do you communicate well with him?"

"Eh?"

"You said you didn't tell him about your identity before you guys broke up, so were you in general not very good at communicating with him about your feeilngs?"

"Ah, hmm.. perhaps that's so," Mari said, not having realized this until Toma pointed it out.

"Is there a possibility that he wants to get back together not because of the timing of you becoming famous again, but because he actually feels sorry having now realized whatever it was he did to you?" Toma supplied, watching Mari's reactions.

"I suppose, but..."

"But?"

Mari finally made eye contact. "Shortly after he broke up with me, I was diagnosed with an early stage of cancer. I didn't want to worry my parents, so I ended up having to take care of myself. If it weren't for my friend Kai-kun, I might not even be here today. Having to go through that alone...knowing that he was off parading with celebrities having the time of his life...it's very hard for me to forgive him for something like that."

"Hmm, well that's understandable. Sometimes life just hurls poor timing at us, and we have to deal with the consequences," Toma conceded. "But, on the other hand, sometimes life hands us moments of perfect timing; and, in those times, we fall in love when we would never have been given the opportunity otherwise."

As he said those last words, his eyes seemed to glaze over Mari as if he were transported to somewhere completely different, thinking about someone else far away.

"Toma-kun has a similar situation?" Mari offered, reading his facial expression.

Toma snapped back into the present, eyes focusing on Mari's curious gaze. He hesitated before conceding. "There's someone I met once by chance, your typical broken elevator situation-and we really hit it off. But she was dating someone else at the time; and, even though they're not dating anymore, I think she still feels weird about approaching me again."

"Hmm, well that would make sense...from a girl's perspective," Mari mused.

"Don't you think we can help each other?" Mari asked.

"Eh?"

Mari extended her hand. "100% of what happened here tonight will never leave this apartment. But that doesn't mean we can't continue to acknowledge the friendship we have built here and continue to support each other with our love endeavors, don't you think?

Toma paused, eyeing off her hand. _Perhaps...little steps..._ He took her hand.

"Deal."

* * *

 **I hope this chapter made you laugh a little! Although our favorite male protagonist did not appear in this chapter, if you rate/review maybe he will in the next one. :) Thanks!**

 **[**] Anyone who speaks Japanese/remembered the title of this fic should lol at the pun I just made there.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hi again, everyone! Sorry for the delay. I've been p busy with real-life things, but I'll be fairly free for these next two months! My original idea for this story ran out like around Chapter 4 or so, so basically I've just been running with ideas as they come at me. I felt particularly inspired after my most recent review from anime junkie. That was ~hilarious~ and it's that sort of encouragement that inspires me to continue! So thanks! Also, to the anon who reviewed earlier in September, I don't know anything about Quotev, but from what my light research showed it seems pretty cool! Anyway, hope you enjoy, and-as always-please read and review!**

* * *

"Really, thank you for your hard work today!" Mari called to the TV staff as she and Toma left set.

"Really, thanks so much!" Toma mimicked right after the door shut.

"Shut up," Mari snapped, instantly dropping her persona (and her posture).

"Ooooh," Toma whistled. "Someone's in a bad mood."

Mari grunted in response and swerved into her waiting room, stuffing her script unceremoniously into her already too-filled bag.

Toma quickly grabbed his bag before deciding to play a game in which he followed Mari's every movement. This game continued despite Mari's most earnest attempt to ignore him, up to when they exited the studio. While they waited for their cars to drive up, Mari whirled around, losing it once Toma started to make chicken sounds in her ear.

"Could you NOT?" Mari started.

"Uh...Toma..." she muttered, now somehow inches from his face as he leaned over, caramel eyes piercing her own.

He leaned in further with a shit-eating grin. "Yes?"

Mari's expression didn't change as Toma held his face less than inches away from her own. Unfazed, she flicked him in the forehead.

"Too close."

"Gahhhhh," Toma said, with a pained smile. He threw an arm around Mari's small shoulders and prodded her with the other.

"Are you grumpy? Haven't been getting enough sleep? Haven't been sleeping with enough people?"

"Shut up!" Mari repeated, a little louder.

"Did I hit a nerve?" Toma prodded.

"No," Mari said sullenly, adjusting her bag as the car pulled up.

Toma grabbed the door before her driver could get out and gestured in a gentlemanly fashion for her to enter. Confused, Mari threw her bag into the far end of the tax before suspiciously crawling in. Before she could protest, Toma leaped in to join.

"Why are you still here?" Mari whined.

"Don't act like you're disappointed. My driver was sick today, so I figured I would just crash with you."

"How does that even make sense? Why don't you just replace your driver for the day?"

Toma looked at her solemnly. "I could never do that to Charles."

"Charles?" Mari said, aghast.

Toma nodded. "Brand loyalty, person loyalty. That should make you feel better about yourself."

"And why should I feel better about myself?" Mari said loudly, entertaining his notion.

He gave her another shit-eating grin. "Because that means I'm a loyal friend to you."

Mari rolled her eyes. "Okay, fine. You can stay. But you're ordering pizza."

"Again?!" Toma whined.

"With the garlic sauce, too."

"Quit it with the garlic sauce, Mari!"

"Don't tell me what I can and can't eat!"

The pair laughed as the car drove away, and they were blissfully unaware of the cameras that had been snapping furiously.

* * *

Bright and early at 6AM, Mari's alarm blared, drowning out the peaceful sound of birds and nature from the park. She grunted, rolling over in bed, before dragging herself out to the stairwell.

"Toma, get up!" Mari droned, dragging out the last word like an alarm.

A lump that was Toma's body was sprawled out on the sofa in the living room, but he had, at some point in the night, stolen all of her stuffed animals and made a sort of fort out of them. All she could see was a tuft of hair to prove he was still there.

She received no response.

"Tomaaaaaaaaaaa," Mari yelled, stomping her foot on the minimalist staircase. "Wake up, you worthless pack of potatoes."

"Pack of potatoes?" A muffled voice came from the part of the fort that was a collection of Pusheen plushes. "Are you stupid?"

Mari grunted, slamming the door to her bathroom.

Fifteen minutes later she was showered and dressed and ready to go. Likewise, Toma had pulled himself together and was making coffee. He was so transfixed on his phone that he didn't even notice her come up behind him.

"Boo," she said, poking his side.

"Oh, hey," Toma said, giving her a side-eyed glance.

"What's up with that look?" Mari asked.

Toma sighed, showing her his phone screen. Photo after photo of them appeared from the night before. Toma following Mari closely out of the studio. Mari turned around, sharing a long, close look with Toma. Toma's laughing face post-being flicked by Mari. The two of them entering the car.

"Today's news."

"This isn't good," Mari commented. "Although I'm sure our managers will love this for the press."

"But not our potential significant others, right?" Toma added.

They fell into a silence. Mari still hadn't learned much about Toma's alleged unrequited love. It seemed that she had moved away following her break-up to somewhere far enough away that Toma couldn't see her regularly if he tried, considering the intensive shoot schedule for their TV program. Mari wondered exactly what Yamato would think when he saw these photos, because he inevitably would, indeed, see these photos.

Mari sighed, rolling out her shoulders, unconsciously preparing for a fight.

"Preparing for the onslaught of questions in variety shows?" Toma prodded.

"You know it," Mari replied, grimly.

Rumors had sparked over the last few weeks as Mari and Toma's friendship had blossomed. They frequently denied any relationship other than good friends on talk shows, but their on-screen chemistry was virtually undeniable. Especially in light of an upcoming heart-throbbing scene (the final kiss~), the media was relentless in their pursuit of "the truth," which seemed to be the acceptance of their mutual love regardless of the validity of its premises.

As they slipped on their shoes and got into the elevator, Mari got a call from Aiko.

"Hello?" Mari answered, surprised as Aiko rarely went out of her way to contact Mari.

"The photos," Aiko said immediately, and Mari's spirits dropped. "You know Yamato is going to freak when he sees them."

"Yeah..."

"Because up to this point it's just been the regular speculation you get during a drama with a love interest," Aiko prodded. "But now you've given them, and him, concrete evidence."

"But it's not like that..." Mari tried to argue.

"Even if that's the case," Aiko continued. "It'll be difficult to dig yourself out of this one."

"I know..." Mari said, glumly.

"I mean, what do you even see in that guy?" Aiko said, her voice getting loud enough for Toma to hear. "He seems pretty self-entitled. A guy who will take whatever he wants, whenever he wants."

The phone was then whisked from her hand.

"Good morning, it's a beautiful day to be alive. This is Toma speaking," Toma said in his most vibrant voice.

Aiko paused. "Mari, aren't you still at your apartment?" she said loudly enough for Mari to hear.

"Aiko, it's not like that-" Mari said from the side.

"Today will be a high of 65 and a low of 32, but that low might get even lower considering this ice queen's wrath," Toma said charmingly. "And yes, that was me calling you an ice queen. Now please, by all means, have a very pleasant day."

Toma victoriously deposited the phone back into Mari's hand as they walked into her car, Mari's head hanging in shame.

"Aiko, I'll call you after work," Mari said weakly.

"Ok, Mari," Aiko said, a little more gently. "Oh, and tell that guy to go-"

But Mari couldn't quite hear the end of that statement because a car just decided to blare its horn.

Mari sighed, agitated at Toma's self-congratulatory attitude. "You know, she doesn't like you now," she explained.

Toma just kept smiling.

"So?" he said coolly.

"I'd like my friends to be friends with each other, if possible," Mari explained further.

"Well maybe you shouldn't have ice queens for friends," Toma said between clenched teeth, continuing to smile as if nothing fazed him.

Mari felt a smile creeping up. "Are you upset that she made fun of you?"

"What," Toma said immediately. "No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are!" Mari goaded, poking him.

"No, I'm not!" Toma said louder.

And so continued the rest of the car ride, until they fell out of the car in the midst of a tickle match onto the cement in front of the studio.

Mari was then struck with inspiration. "Let's go to an onsen together," she announced. "You, me, Aiko, Asami, and Kai. That way, you can meet all of my friends and become friends with them too, and then once they see us interact they'll know that we're just friends."

"Will you pay for my trip?" Toma said automatically.

"Oh, my God," Mari sighed, exasperated. "Is that all you care about?'

"Yes," Toma replied immediately. "Like 97% of my care was in that."

"And the other 3%?"

"To tell off your friend for calling me entitled."

Mari smiled, extending her hand for a shake on agreement. "It's a deal, then."

* * *

 **Ok, sorry sorry this is way shorter than usual! Basically, I was feeling inspired to write a little, and I have to capitalize on times that my writer's block lifts so that I can think up new ideas. I have a good idea of what the next chapter is going to look like, so now all I have to do is type it T_T I don't want to promise anything in advance too concrete, but I promise I won't take as long to update again this time! And Yamato WILL appear again soon I promise he is still a central part of this story. I just need to find my own way back to him personally lul I'm having way too much fun with this Toma character who, yes, for those of you who are wondering, IS inspired off of the beautiful Ikuta Toma. :)**

 **As always, please rate and review to motivate me to continue!**


	8. Chapter 8

**"I'll update sooner than last time!" My last words lol. Ok I AM SO SORRY. I recently moved to Japan and so my life has been all topsy-turvy. But thank you so much if you're still following this story and I hope you enjoy~~ I noticed that some of you are worried that Yamato and Mari won't end up with each other in the end, but NEVER FEAR. Keep motivating me to write new chapters and you will see!**

* * *

"Promise to be nice to my friends, okay?" Mari said for the hundredth time while adjusting her duffel bag strap on her shoulder.

"Say it one more time," Toma said, rolling his eyes. "And are you speaking in English as a precautionary measure in case one of them happens to overhear you? Pathetic."

The two were a few hours behind the rest of their company in arriving to the ryoukan, as the filming schedule ran unexpectedly late.

"Promise to-" Mari started to hiss again in English, but Toma shuffled by her before she could finish.

Mari stewed the entire walk through the lobby and to their rooms, trying to figure out exactly why she was so nervous. It was important, after all, that her friends have a good impression of Toma to carry back to Yamato, but still...something seemed a little off.

Toma slided the rolling door open, and Mari's tension dropped upon seeing that no one seemed to be in the room. She dumped her duffel bag on the floor and kicked her shoes off, flopping onto the tatami.

"So unladylike," Toma reprimanded.

"Shut up!" Mari grunted, crawling over to the cupboard to grab a cushy blanket.

She couldn't shake her moodiness, and it was beginning to irritate her. Huffing, she buried herself in the surprisingly large fleece blanket, tucking the corners under her as she curled up into a little ball. She inhaled deeply, getting into a comfy position, and let out a series of strange catlike noises (what, it was therapeutic) while rolling headfirst in the general direction of where she guessed Toma was.

She ran into something hard; and, assuming it was Toma's leg, she shouted out, "Move out of my way, Toma. Can't you see I'm on a mission?"

She then leaped up, spreading her blanket wide, yelling, "I'm a flying squirrel!"

Only it wasn't Toma she yelled at. It was Kai.

At this time, Mari cursed the fact that she didn't have an alcohol blanket to shield her from the embarrassment she was feeling or the anger she felt toward Toma's laughing at her. Deciding to drop any effort to save her persona, Mari shook her finger at Toma, "You have a stupid laugh. Did you know that? It's stupid and annoying like a screeching dolphin. So shut up!"

Somehow, this only made Toma laugh even harder, which of course pissed Mari off even more. She hobbled over to his rolling frame on the floor and began kicking his butt with venomous intent.

"Itta, itta, stop that hurts, Mari!" Toma yelled, scrambling up before tossing her over his shoulder against her protests and dumping her unceremoniously back onto the (did they forget?) expensive tatami mats. And Kai still had yet to say a single word.

Landing one last flick to the forehead for good judgment, Mari breathed deeply before putting on a winning smile.

"Kai, this is Toma. Toma, meet Kai. Please be friends."

Whatever smart introduction Toma gave, Kai really didn't pay attention. He was shocked by how open Mari was with this guy-almost if not more relaxed as she was with him, and it had taken the full month before they were even remotely close to that level.

Even while Toma was still giving his speel, Mari could see how visibly disturbed Kai was by what he had just witnessed. But before she could do anything to remedy the situation, Aiko and Asami walked in and the self-introductions began all over again. Mari inched her way over to Kai slowly yet purposefully, brushing against his shoulder as they sat next to each other on the tatami mats.

"You ok?" Mari asked quietly, barely heard over Aiko and Toma's bickering that had started almost immediately upon introduction.

"Hmm?" Kai said absentmindedly, rubbing his thumb and index finger against each other unconsciously like he always did when deep in thought.

Mari put her hand over his, stopping the motion to catch his attention.

"What?"

Mari smiled. "I just wanted to make sure you were ok."

Kai faltered before giving in to Mari's genuine smile. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Mari nudged him slightly toward Toma. "Please try to become friends with my _friend_."

Kai felt a slight twinge of annoyance at Mari's word choice. "You need me to see that you're just friends or you need me to convince you of that?"

Mari flinched.

"Everyone! Let's go sit out on the patio and make s'mores!" Asami's voice cleared the ambiance, obviously an attempt to break up the quarrelling going on between Aiko and Toma.

"Honestly, I don't like you," Aiko deadpanned.

"Say it again to my face like you mean it," Toma deadpanned back.

Right as Aiko began to repeat her sentence, Toma made the stupidest face possible; and, against her will, Aiko burst out laughing.

"Gotcha!" Toma yelled triumphantly. He turned to Asami, "My lady, would you like me to escort you outside now?"

Blushing and stuttering, Toma whisked Asami outside, Aiko following while rolling her eyes, and Mari and Kai rose to follow them.

They had a wonderful time making s'mores and exchanging funny stories about Mari; and, while Mari smiled, she couldn't help but worry that Kai and Toma wouldn't really make eye contact. She had to do something fast.

"All right!" Mari announced, jumping up to her feet. "Girls, I think it's about time we hit the onsen."

Reading her cue immediately, Aiko rose as well and began to clean up the table.

Asami cheered, "I'll go get everything ready to go!"

Only a minute or two passed before Kai and Toma found themselves alone on the porch. Kai fidgeted in place, and Toma twitched slightly, leaning backward.

"Mari and I are just friends," Toma said into the darkness, breaking the silence.

"Uh, I know," Kai stuttered, leaning backward himself now.

"Oh," Toma said with a pause. "I thought that was why you were uncomfortable with me."

"It is."

"What?"

"You _think_ you're just friends," Kai emphasized. "But I'm not sure."

"You aren't convinced?"

"No."

A pause lingered.

"I've only ever loved one girl in my life," Toma said, resignedly.

"What happened to her?"

Silence.

"She didn't return the feeling," Toma said tersely, and it was obvious he wanted the subject to be dropped.

"Oh," Kai said, kicking himself for prodding.

"Yeah, I don't like to talk about it. I haven't told Mari either. But I figured that was the only thing that would get you to believe me," Toma said, and Kai could see the barest outline of him rubbing the back of his neck in the twilight.

Kai nodded to himself, irritated by how much he was able to relax after hearing those words from Toma.

"I used to love Mari," Kai threw out his confession into the darkness as well. "But after I realized the relationship between her and Yamato, I realized I had no chance."

He felt Toma's keen stare on him.

"What's the deal with this guy?"

"Yamato?" Kai asked, surprised.

"Yeah," Toma said measuredly. "Mari never talks about him, really. All I know is that he skipped scene at a really poor time in her life and that you were there to pick up the pieces. But she never really has gone into detail."

Kai paused.

"It was a really dark time for her. The cancer was eating away at her body before she even knew it was a thing. She was always so thin and pale. Sometimes I was worried that if I held out my hands to touch her she'd just fade away like a ghost. And for her to go through the same process of cancer like how her dad did..." Kai stared hard at the floor. "It must have been torture for her to be reminded of his death like that every day. And she had no one. Absolutely no one to help her. I can't imagine being as alone and as weak as she was." He felt his emotions start to overwhelm him.

"But you were there," Toma said, interrupting Kai's spiraling emotions. "She said that you saved her. You alone."

Kai smiled. "I'm glad I could have helped her. All I want is to help her."

The two boys smiled at each other in the darkness, but somehow the emotion was still felt.

"Those two really are that good together?" Toma asked.

Kai grunted. "Otherwise I would have made a move a long time ago."

"Wow," Toma said, leaning back against the floor. "All right."

"Huh?"

"I'll help you get them back together. If that's what will make Mari happy, then she deserves to be happy."

Kai smiled into the darkness. "Thanks, Toma."

They shook hands in the silence.

* * *

Mari made sure the girls soaked in the onsen for long enough to give Kai and Toma enough time to talk; so, by the time they settled back into their hotel it was around 2 in the morning.

"Ma~~~ri, let's play a game!" Asami whined, tugging on her yukata.

"Ok, ok! I'll go get some food from the convenience store and be right back," Mari promised, tying her hair up into a knot.

As she walked down the thin side street on the way to the store, Mari was deep in thought, worrying about how Kai and Toma were getting on. She was so engrossed in thought that she didn't see the man creeping up behind her until the very last second when he landed a heavy blow to the side of her head, rendering her unconscious.

* * *

 **A New Year's present 3 Please review and motivate me to continue so you don't have to linger here on this cliffhanger!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hello again, everyone! Thank you for patiently waiting for this next chapter. I had so many thoughts come to me at once, so I hope that I was able to convey everything that was in my mind here into the story. ^.^**

* * *

Heat made time pass slowly in the onsen, and the two girls were engrossed in discussion about Mari's love life for well over an hour before they came to and realized that Mari had been absent for quite a while.

"I bet she's eating all of the snacks with Kai and Toma!" Asami said indignantly while squeezing the water out of her hair.

They meandered into the living room, buzzing contently. Toma and Kai were playing cards.

"Eh?" Asami said, folding her legs as she sat next to the two boys. "Mari isn't with you?"

"With us?" Kai asked. "We thought she was with you this whole time."

"No, she left like an hour or so ago to get food and we figured she was eating it all with you guys," Aiko responded.

They stared at each other for a moment before simultaneously getting up.

"No one knows where she is?" Toma asked, grabbing his phone. No new messages.

"We thought she was with you!" Asami spluttered, picking up pillows and sheets just to have something for her hands to do.

"I'm going to look at the convenience store," Kai said, half running already while putting his jacket on.

"Me too," Toma said.

"We'll scope out the resort and then join you if we can't find her here!" Aiko responded, gathering the sputtering Asami. "Get it together, Asami!"

Kai ran down the path, checking each side alleyway for any sign of Mari. His focus started to blur as he started to panic more and more as he realized that Mari was nowhere to be found. After an hour of searching, he and Toma finally bust into the convenience store and begged the attendants through all methods of persuasion to see the videotapes. And there they watched in horror in the far left corner as Mari was hit over the head and dragged away by a masked man.

"Oh my God."

Toma fell back in horror. Asami and Aiko held hands to their mouths, holding back acute weeping. Kai just stood there silently, hands clenched, mind whirling at a thousand miles per hour.

"I can call the police," the attendant offered.

"We'll handle it," Kai said, speaking for the first time since the tape finished rolling. "We'll call the police ourselves to explain the situation better. Thank you for your time, though. Someone may follow up shortly with the proper legal documents to submit this recording for evidence."

Everyone ushered out after Kai.

"Should I call the police now?" Aiko asked.

"No," Kai said grimly, plugging in a different number to his phone. "They'll cover the whole thing in red tape so thick that we won't be able to touch it. We have to go through Ms. Shields first."

The groggy voice of Ms. Shields snapped over the phone.

"Ms. Shields," Kai said steadily. "It's an emergency."

* * *

Yamato was paging through a gossip magazine. He hated himself for not being able to stop looking at these trashy tabloids with all of the unfound speculations about celebrities, but there was something in those rumors that helped validate his certain intuition about the relationship between Mari and that Toma actor. They just seemed way too buddy-buddy now, especially considering how the rumors say that they started out more like as enemies. _Opposites attract_ , Yamato thought to himself bitterly, slowly crushing the image of Mari and Toma smiling at each other while on set. For the 500th time, Yamato went to punch in Mari's number on his phone to give her a piece of his mind. He wanted to call her all of the worst names for dismissing their once-in-a-lifetime love for her career and the next pretty boy to waltz into her life. He wanted to make her cry, to crush her for what she was doing to him. But for the 500th time he violently hit the backspace and lopped his phone onto his bed, far enough away to tempt him into sending a message. In the middle of his moping, the doorbell rang. Yamato tensed. It was still 4:30 in the morning. Something was wrong. He padded down to the door and pressed the button to record camera of outside. He went to hit the access button when he saw it was Kai, but stopped when he realized who was with him.

"Why did you bring that filth to my door, Kai?" Yamato growled into the intercom.

"Yamato," Kai started. "Listen. It's an emergency."

"A big enough emergency that you would bring that filth to my door," Yamato gritted between clenched teeth.

"Mari has been kidnapped," Kai said simply with the most solemn voice Yamato had ever heard.

He hit the access button and before Kai could fully walk in Yamato had him pressed against the wall.

"What did you just say to me?" Yamato said quietly, holding Kai's shoulders firmly against the wall.

He knew Kai was serious because he could see the boy fighting back tears as he struggled to find the words to repeat himself.

"She's been kidnapped," he whispered.

Yamato released Kai's shoulders and slowly walked back into his living room, falling limply onto the sofa. He stared at the wall across from his sofa, mind attempting to process what Kai had just told him. He only caught fragments of the subsequent context that Toma was providing. And then soon, there was silence again.

"Yamato," Kai said, voice still quavering. "We need to go to Ms. Shields' place. She's called a mandatory meeting for everyone close to Mari."

"Well I'm not close to her anymore, am I?" Yamato said bitterly. "She's close with this filth."

He pointed angrily in Toma's direction.

Toma sighed loudly. He grabbed Yamato by the shoulder and stood him up properly. Despite being a few inches shorter than Yamato, Toma was strong.

"Look," he said matter-of-factly. "I don't like Mari in a romantic sense. She's like my little sister. I've been in love with someone else unrequitedly for years. I've got bigger problems on my plate romantically than her. So why don't you stop whining about shit you read in the tabloids and get your shit together so we can try to find her?"

Yamato blinked rapidly, processing all over again new information. Toma huffed even louder and grabbed Yamato by the shoulder again, propelling him toward the door.

* * *

They opened the door to Ms. Shields' grim face. It seemed that overnight she had aged ten years. Yoshioka was quietly sewing a handkerchief by hand, listlessly looking ahead at nothing. Asami and Aiko were quietly consulting each other in the corner. The only sound in the room was the clicking of nails on a keyboard in the far left corner where a woman with large glasses was determinedly navigating through a dual-screen computer's worth of surveillance footage.

"Make yourselves at home," Ms. Shields said, voice cracking from having yelled herself hoarse earlier that night.

She padded back over to the woman at the computer and began exchanging quiet remarks.

The three boys joined the two older women at the computer. The woman at the computer was unmistakably Ms. Shields' sister, and she was also incredibly good with a computer, moving through footage at an impressive speed while maintaining conversation with her sister.

"My sister," Ms. Shields said unnecessarily. "She works in cybercrime with the government and is lending us a hand tonight."

"I've tracked the kidnapper up to a small city in Nagano Prefecture, but the trail drops off somewhere in the mountains, unfortunately," Ms. Shields' sister said, tracing the trail of surveillance cameras to an interactive map on her dual screens. We'll have to go out ourselves now to find her. And by now, I mean pack your bags now. The trail is still hot."

As everyone was grabbing their belongings, Yamato's phone chimed. Everyone turned to him and saw as he paled, reading the message sent from Mari's kidnapper.

"Oh, God," he whispered.

* * *

"Rise and shine, sweetheart!" a man's shrill voice woke Mari from what she ascertained to be a drug-induced sleep.

Groggily, she rubbed the back of her wrist against her eyes and was confused by the frill of the dress she'd been changed into. Her eyes widened in horror as she felt and saw underneath the frills of the dress an iron handcuff chaining her.

"Oh now look, you've messed up your makeup, dear," the man's voice said disapprovingly.

Panic began to set in as Mari realized the situation she was in. She began searching for the source of the man's voice until finally she met eyes with a short, reedy man standing on the opposite side of this room. The room was set up like a studio for filming with Mari's side being the set and the side where the man was being the producer's sparsely decorated working space. And in fact there was one camera on the man's side.

"Why am I here?" Mari said hoarsely, furtively glancing around for anything she could use as a weapon to defend herself.

"I'm really quite selfish, aren't I?" the man said giddily, almost to himself. "I'm just your biggest fan. I knew we would get married some day, but I wanted to take things into my hands to...expedite the process." His mouth widened into a huge smile.

"I'm, um, really flattered that you're a big fan," Mari said, mind racing to think of something to get her out of here. "But wouldn't it be even better if I took you to my real movie sets and introduced you to the whole cast? I could definitely do that!"

"No!" the man's voice changed to be harsher, frightening. "I don't want anyone else. Just you and me forever, Marumi. Just you and me!"

His voice had escalated to yells and screams.

"Ok! Ok! I understand!" Mari tried yelling over his own screams. "Could you at least take me out of these handcuffs? It's really uncomfortable on my wrists and seems like an odd way for us to get to know each other."

The man immediately calmed down and wagged a finger at her.

"Someone could try to come steal you away from me, and I have to keep you safe. Can't you see?"

Mari sighed. "Yes, you have a point."

The man beamed at her. "Well, I'll be off for the next three weeks, but my dear friend will be taking care of you in my absence."

"You're leaving?" Mari said, confused.

"I've got to get the authorities off of my trail and hide how I got you here, of course," the man explained matter-of-factly. "And I have to keep up appearances at my job so I can support for our life. I'm a responsible man, Mari. You'll learn that soon enough. Until then, eat up."

He pointed at the table filled with delicious foods and smiled from afar before waving goodbye.

Mari then proceeded to survey the entire dollhouse, looking for any sort of evidence of where she was or any weapons that she could use. No apparent cameras in the room other than the one across the room that was off. Her eyes latched onto the butter knife on the table. _Was this guy stupid, or did he just not think that she would resort to that sort of violence?_ Mari bit her lip as she stealthily deposited the knife into her dress while appearing to meander the room. She would lodge the knife into the crevice of the bed frame later that night. Until then, she did her best to ascertain her surroundings. Definitely in a basement, and it seemed to be somewhere cold. But they were still close enough to a town to get the convenience store food. She refused to allow herself to come to terms with the reality of her situation, mechanically focusing on each and every potential thing that could help her escape.

Hours passed when the door opened once again, cutting off Mari's train of thought. This man was unlike his predecessor. He was bulkier and of average height, dressed in brutish clothing. This man clearly lived in the mountains. He slapped down a bowl of grits and mushy meat next to the fine food that the previous man had left for her.

"Ungrateful for your food?" the man grunted, swiping up the good food right in front of her eyes.

He advanced slowly on her, and Mari backtracked like a deer in headlights. She knew there was no saving her even with the butter knife. That was better saved for later...if possible. The man breathed heavily against her face, pressing her against the wall. He chuckled darkly.

"This will be fun."

* * *

Two and a half weeks passed in the cell. In Mari's personal hell. The man who Mari had come to name Grunt would terrorize her on a daily basis. He would appear at her side, just staring at her while she slept, and sometimes she would wake up to his cold hands slipping under her blankets, reaching toward her body. Each time she would scream, and each time she would resist reaching for the butter knife, opting instead to take his punches and insults. She knew she had to bide her time from early on. And so she had come to go without much sleep. She lost weight quickly in the first week before realizing she could use this to her advantage, hiding the heavy handcuffs under the frills of her now ripping dress. If she could just lose enough weight, maybe she could slip her wrists through the cuffs. So she began methodically flushing her grits and mushy meat down the toilet, making sure to erase any trace of the fact, relying solely on water. The human body can survive just on water for up to a month in some situations, Mari kept reminding herself as she checked off the days on the side of her bed post. She had just one more day until she'd make her attempt at escape. These days she kept mostly to her bed, desperately trying to hide her skeletal frame from the man to avoid suspicions. She lost weight at an unnaturally fast pace as a result of her previous history with cancer. Still, she refused to allow her thoughts to wander to the horror of the situation that she was in. _Later, later_... she would come to terms with it later. For now, she had to begin her plan, the slow chafing of her skin against the handcuffs underneath the covers. She figured, according to schedule, that she had about five hours before the man would come back again.

And for five hours, Mari chafed away the skin on her wrists, reducing them to a bloody mess. Ironically, it was her own blood that allowed her wrists to slip out more easily from the cuffs. Mari stared at her wrists, not even upset by the sight of so much blood but just so overwhelmed to be freed from the cuffs. She jumped up without thinking and grabbed her butter knife, which she had kept hidden so carefully for the past two and a half weeks. She scuttled to the door and waited.

Sure enough, at the five-hour mark, the man quietly opened the door; but, before he could even close the door and adjust his eyes to the new lighting, Mari was there, moving at a speed even she did not know she possessed, and stabbed the man cleanly between his eyes. His body convulsed just for a second as panicked eyes met the cool indifference of hers. She did her best to catch his fall, cautious to the fear that maybe others lived in this hellish house. She rummaged through his pockets methodically, pulling out a cell phone and a knife. She tucked her butter knife into the remains of her dress and carried the larger knife behind her back as she scuttled upstairs as quietly as possible.

But no one else was there. It was just her and this man living in the hell house. She took a quick surveillance of the house and grabbed the blanket on the couch, the winter jacket on the hook and dirty wool socks on the floor next to the door. And then she creaked the door open and walked to her freedom.

Freedom was cold. It was just about the beginning of March now, so the coldest of winter had passed. But its icy trails remained. The man had left a motorcycle perched against the house. It had a quarter tank of gas. The town must have been close. She hopped onto the motorcycle, vision blurring, and prayed she'd make it to town before she fainted.

Thirty minutes later, Mari spotted the twinkling of a small city's lights. As she got closer and closer to the city, the more and more she came to terms with the fact that she might have actually done it. She might have escaped. She might be free. But right as she approached the edge of town, the paranoia started to kick in. What if the man was looking for her now? What if he had accomplices here in this town?

 _No, no, no. Calm down, Mari._ She told herself. You've still got golden time. Even if he did have people on the outside, they won't have known yet that anything is wrong. You just need to go in and hide in the bustle of the city and use this cell phone to contact your friends and family.

 _Friends and family?_ Mari thought to herself. Who can I trust? She felt herself quickly spiraling out of control, so she immediately slammed on the breaks of the motorcycle and huddled in the trees nearby. _What if they're tracking this cellphone's location? I need to make a call and dump this phone immediately. IMMEDIATELY._ So she thumbed in the only number she could think of. It rang for only one ring before a hasty voice picked up.

"Hello?"

"Yamato," Mari whispered, barely heard over the chill of the wind. "Help me."

"Mari," Yamato breathed. "Oh my God. Where are you?"

"I'm in Nagano Prefecture's Matsumoto in a small town in the south," she whispered. "Please, come get me."

"Ok, Mari, stay on the phone because we're tracking your location now," Yamato said firmly. "Just talk to me, ok?"

"I can't, Yamato," Mari replied brokenly. "They can track this phone too. They're coming for me. They'll find me. I can't go back again."

"Mari, listen to me," Yamato said. "Once we track your location, we'll send police to your location so no one can get to you before us, ok?"

"But what if the police are on his side, too?" Mari replied brokenly. "I can't go back, Yamato. I can't...I can't... I CAN'T!"

"Mari!" Yamato yelled over her screams. "Calm down."

She began crying softly, her weeping mixed in with the fury of the wind.

"Trust me, ok? We're almost done tracking you. Just...trust me, ok?"

Mari stared at the phone, barely hearing him over the wind. Her tears were drying on her face even as she cried them out.

"I trust you," she said emptily, dropping the phone on the ground, walking further into the forest.

"We've got her," Ms. Shields' sister said, deploying the police officers to her location.

"We're coming for you, Mari," Yamato said darkly.

* * *

 **What a cliffhanger! Sry lol. Please read, rate, and review for the next chapter! Yay~**

 **UPDATE: For those of you who are wondering exactly what happened in the house, never fear. It will all be played out more specifically in the next chapter.**


	10. Chapter 10

**It's been over a year since my last update, so I'm really sorry! Life in Japan has been a whirlwind. I think I left it in a pretty dark place (oops), but I've recently been inspired with a twist so I thought I would tease it out a bit to see if anyone still wants to read this. Thanks and sorry for the wait!**

The forest was filled with darkness, the chill of winter having sucked out the life and color of a place meant to host life. But in that monotone dripped puddles of red, trailing toward a source of life, life that was bordering on death.

When the police found her, she looked more doll than human, dark, ragged hair pressed against the palest of white stretched skin, the red of blood staining the pure white snow in which she had collapsed.

She shuddered as a gloved, yet warm finger pressed against her neck.

"I've got her! She's alive!" a woman shouted.

Her eyes were open, and yet she saw nothing but a glassy blur of figures turning slowly but surely to darkness.

The clock chimed three times, and the sound descended onto those three seated in the conference room. Stacked on the table and lining the walls were everything from phone records, to old bills, recovered trash, yearbook photos, and photos. Strings attached to photos of people linking them to others by relationships and histories. Empty take-out boxes shoved to the side, the smell of leftover food masked by the heavy musk of cigarette smoke.

Inhaling deeply on the last of his cigarettes, Toma flicked the butt into the corner of the room, watching the last of the fire sizzle out.

Kai scrubbed his hair, like if he went through the figurative motions of washing his hair it would remove the itchy greasiness.

The only sound in the room was that of a rubber ball being thrown steadily at the wall, Yamato deep in thought yet comforted by the repetitiveness of the sound.

They'd used up all their resources and connections to get to where they were in the investigation, and yet they were still coming up short. Two weeks had passed, and yet they still didn't know who had taken Mari or for what purpose.

Kai let out a sigh of frustration.

"So, what should we do now?" he asked the silent room.

The rhythm of the rubber ball hitting the wall didn't miss a beat.

Toma sighed deeply, realizing he'd run out of cigarettes. It was a nasty habit he'd fall back on when extremely stressed, anyway.

"All we can do now is wait for Ms. Shields to come back on her leads," he explained for the third time that day, still in a way as if he needed to explain it to himself, as well.

Kai sighed even louder. "But there's got to be something we can do, right?"

"Mari's still in a coma," Yamato said quietly, the ball hitting the wall slightly harder than usual. "We have to stay close for when she wakes up."

The two fell into silence again, not wanting to say what they were really thinking- "if" she wakes up.

When Mari finally came to them, she had undergone serious surgeries resulting in total bodily damage, from bone fractures to malnutrition...to horrors they could not even begin to process. In short, the sheer mental trauma would be enough to make anyone want to sleep forever.

The police had searched the forest and traced the home where Mari had been held captive. Upon seeing the shrine dedicated to Mari, they were quick to conclude that the heinous acts had been the result of an overzealous fan and successfully identified and located the culprit.

But something seemed off, Ms. Shields was quick to notice. The culprit worked at a local insurance company, with a salary that certainly could not afford the lengths to which he was able to go to hide Mari's location from the authorities. And further, the shrine held information that seemed impossible for a fan who had lived his whole life in Japan (as per a fear of planes) to have learned just through the Internet.

In short, someone else was behind Mari's kidnapping.

There was a short knock at the door, and Ms. Shields walked in, her face grim as she looked at the three.

"I know who did this to Mari."

 **So that's it for now! Like I said I have a decent idea of how to move forward with the story, but as it's mystery-focused that also requires a lot of thought, so I'm wondering if anyone still wants to read this story. Thanks!**


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